


The List

by charis2770



Series: Yours. His. Ours. [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Boys Being Awkward, Boys Kissing, Comunication, Denial, Developing Relationship, Keith is surprisingly prepared for this, Keith takes the initiative, Kink Negotiation, Lance has a big heart AND a big mouth, Lance is clueless, List of kinks is very long, M/M, More tags to be added, Multi, Other people are tired of waiting, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Quality Time, Rated Explicit for later chapters, Shiro is Trying To Be Responsible, Spanking, Teasing, healthy BDSM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-11-15 13:56:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11232414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charis2770/pseuds/charis2770
Summary: Shiro decides they need to put a hold on further sexual involvement and spend some time getting to know each other better AND talking about their individual interests and kinks before just diving into a poly BDSM relationship. Keith and Lance agree (reluctantly), but there's a problem. Not only is talking about that sort of thing awkward, there's an unfortunate lack of knowledge on some people's parts. Getting sort of tired of waiting, Keith sucks up his discomfort with putting himself out there so blatantly and takes matters into his own hands.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I decided it would be fun to do a kink negotiation chapter as the opener for the continuation of my series, because based on the amazing positive response, I really feel like this story is far from done. You don't HAVE to read Fix. This. to read this story, but it does tell te story of how Shiro, Keith and Lance become an item. 
> 
> The BDSM checklist is a document that can be found all over the internet. It's a great tool for partners who are just venturing into BDSM or just getting to know each other to start an open discussion of their likes and dislikes, desires, and limits. I highly recommend it to just about everyone who has any interest in BDSM at all.
> 
> As usual, the chapter I've been writing has gottten very long, so I'm splitting it up into chapters. Mostly that's because I really didn't want it to come across like a lesson, but to include some good character development and build up insight into all three of the boys' thoughts and feelings. Plus, with Lance involved, there are bound to be tangents. I've actually got quite a bit more already written, so I hope you won't have to wait too long for the next chapter, though I did take a bad fall the other day and sustained some bruises, minor cuts and mild sprains, some of which are in my hands and shoulder, so typing is slow. But I'll persevere as best and as soon as I can! So I'm sorry there's no porn yet, but it's coming, once they do actually get through this list. I just think Lance's reactions to some of the items on it would be too priceless to pass up.
> 
> So anyway, here's the introduction. I hope it isn't so boring that I lose you guys, because I promise things will heat up eventually. A lot.

There isn’t any more sex for the next few days, partly because Allura and Coran decide they need to intensify their training to the point where everyone is exhausted and so sore they can barely move by the time they’re released from their somewhat manic Altean teachers who have a seriously tenuous grasp of human physiology and physical limits, partly because there’s a minor skirmish with a single Galran warship and a few dozen drone ships harassing a tiny backwater planet Zarkon had apparently assumed would be an easy mark except that the castle ship had picked up the distress call and they’d made it in time. It hadn’t been that much of a fight; they’ve taken on much worse and won, but then there had been the inevitable meeting of the locals, which had at least been mercifully short. The indigenous people had been grateful, of course, but had had next to nothing to offer as allies, with no resources except a little local food which had all been too weird even for Coran, and not much else. The Galra had apparently only chosen to hit them because they were there, or because they represented an easy slave source. And also because Shiro had decided emphatically that they were going to spend some time getting to know each other without the sex part preventing them from actually talking to each other.

 

Keith and Lance agreed with him, on principle anyway, but neither one of them really saw any reason why they couldn’t do both. Still, when Shiro was adamant about a thing, then that was the thing that happened, especially since he was actually pretty rarely adamant. Despite, or maybe because of, everything he’d been through, Shiro was one of the most patient, soft-spoken and compassionate people anyone would never expect in a leader. But despite the increasing buildup of sexual frustration, it surprised the hell out of both of them to discover that, once they stopped sniping at each other all the time (well, and adding Shiro into the mix probably had a lot to do with it), they actually had fun being around each other. 

 

It became their habit to meet in one of the many small common rooms every night after dinner to just spend time together and talk. Keith, having spent the most time alone in the vessel during off-hours of anyone, knew more about it, and had found quite a few rooms none of the other paladins knew about, so they’d chosen this one. It takes a bit of trekking through the maze of corridors, elevators and staircases to get to, but the privacy has been worth it. In a few short days, they’ve learned a lot about each other. Maybe most of it is just surface stuff, like basic background, favorite music styles and movies, likes and dislikes when it comes to food, how they each feel their bond with their lions (it had come as a surprise to each of them to learn that the bond was different for all of them; Black and Shiro are much like partners, friends, with Black spending a lot of time trying to bolster Shiro’s self-worth as her pilot in the way Hunk has been there for Lance through so much, and communicates with him in actual mental images; Blue’s bond with Lance is more familial, like an older sister or mother figure who supports and encourages him, communicating through emotions; and Keith’s bond with Red is (unsurprisingly) as complicated as Keith himself….she is sometimes like a family member to him, but she is his swordsister, a warrior who always has his back, and just as impulsive as her pilot (which explains why Keith so often does such reckless things when he flies her since she’s not much of a voice of reason the way the other lions sometimes are for  _ their _ paladins, and he’d even haltingly tried to explain that sometimes it feels like he’s one with  _ her _ rather than she being one with him….a wild beast that communicates with her on an instinctive level rather than in any way he can put into human words. They’ve also talked a little bit about sex, and a few of the things they’d like to try, but some fantasies are more than a little embarrassing to say out loud, even if you do already know your partners are also raging freaks.

 

Lance and Shiro are waiting in the cozy room, sitting side by side on one of the curved, plush sofas in the center of the room, chatting casually about some of their favorite Earth things. Keith is late, which isn’t like him, and Shiro keeps glancing at the doorway with an expression of mixed concern and mild irritation. Lance wonders if it makes him a horrible person that the tiny line of annoyance between Shiro’s brows causes some very interesting and  _ very _ dirty thoughts of Shiro deciding to punish Keith for being late. He’s imagining Keith held firmly over Shiro’s lap with his pants pulled down while Shiro spanks him fast and hard until he’s squirming and bucking and yelling on the verge of tears how  _ sorry _ he is….when Keith walks into the room with a small stack of tablets under his arm, managing to look mortified and determined at the same time. Lance is glad the lighting is low and his skin is dark so that the fluch he feels in his cheeks probably doesn’t show.

 

“Is everything okay?” asks Shiro softly. It’s obvious that Keith looks more than a little uncomfortable.

 

“Sorry I’m late,” he mutters, shuffling over to the circular seating arrangements to sit awkwardly at the very edge of the sofa, instead of right next to Shiro as he’s been doing. 

 

“It’s not a big deal, Keith,” says Shiro quietly, concerned by the younger paladin’s strange behavior. “It’s not like this is set in stone or anything. You’re even free to beg off anytime you want...or need...some time to yourself, if that’s it. I just sort of thought these past few nights had been pretty good….”

 

“No,” frowns Keith. “I mean, yeah, they have been. It’s just...I noticed that every time we try to talk about...well,  _ stuff _ we’re into, or interested in, or want to try or...whatever....it sort of feels like one...or all of us...end up holding back. I think there’s more than one reason for that.”

 

“Yeah? More than that it’s hella weird to say shit like, ‘I wanna be painted blue and have ice cream licked out of my belly button?” says Lance. Keith and Shiro raise their eyebrows.

 

“Um. Is...that something you want us to do?” asks Shiro carefully. Keith hides his face behind the tablets and snorts. Lance’s mouth falls open.

 

“ _ What _ ? NO! Geez! I tried to think of something like, totally  _ not _ personal for anybody or whatever,” he protested, waving his hands prohibitively.

 

“Whatever, he’s right about it being embarrassing to just....say out loud,” said Keith. “But I don’t think that’s all. I mean, it took one night to figure out that Shiro’s a Dominant and Lance and I are submissive to him, though I actually think I might be a switch cause I actually. Really. Um. Liked holding Lance down. And stuff.”

 

“The fuck’s a switch?” wondered Lance, trying not to blush at the memory. 

 

“Oh. It’s...someone who likes both sides. Sometimes being in control and sometimes being controlled. I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s not that I’d want to very often. I’ve had to take care of myself for a really long time, and it’s...nice to let someone else do it. I think maybe there’s just a few aspects of...of Topping that sound appealing to me. I don’t wanna be the boss or anything, or make anybody do anything they don’t want to do. And that’s part of why I was late. It took me a while to get the files downloaded onto all three of these tablets,” says Keith, fumbling for the right words. 

 

“What files?” demands Lance suspiciously, leaning around Shiro to peer at them.

 

“See,” says Keith, shifting a little closer, “I realized I’m the only one who’s ever done any actual research into this stuff. Lance has only looked at porn, and Shiro’s been too busy trying to repress his urges because he’s always been too worried about being the nice guy for his own good.” He glances at Shiro apologetically, then firms his jaw. “And...and I’m sorry if that offends you Shiro, but I think it’s true. I remember watching you run yourself ragged at the Garrison my first year, trying to keep  _ everyone _ happy without thinking about yourself. And since we got you back, it’s been even worse. Well, until the other night, anyway.”

 

“Hey man,” says Lance hotly, “cut him some slack! I think he earned it after what he’s been through!”

 

“No, wait Lance,” says Shiro, laying a hand on the blue paladin’s shoulder. “Keith’s right. I didn’t know there were terms for the things we’re proposing to do together because I was so worried it made me a bad person to have the kind of urges and fantasies that I had that I only ever tried to repress them, and it got worse after I escaped the Galra. I don’t really know what I’m doing because of that, and I wish I’d been a little less worried about fitting into the expectations other people had for me. I might have learned more while I had the chance, back on Earth.”

 

“But you do,” says Keith, laying the tablets on his lap instead of hugging them nervously to his chest. “See, I got in the habit of keeping my drive with me everywhere I went, because I didn’t trust some stranger not to stumble across my house in the desert and steal my stuff. It’s not like it was exactly the most secure place in the world, just isolated.”

 

“Okay…”

 

“So I have all the articles and stuff I downloaded, not just….um...stories and pictures and stuff,” shrugs Keith, looking at the floor.

 

“Heh. You mean your spank bank. I kept mine on a usb in my pocket all the time too, so I wouldn’t get busted in a security sweep at school,” says Lance smugly, leaning back and folding his arms behind his head. Keith rolls his eyes.

 

“It’s more than than, horndog. I mean articles and educational materials.  _ Not _ porn. And I was thinking part of the reason it’s hard for us to talk about is maybe because we don’t even  _ know _ what all there is we might want to try. So there’s this list, for new partners, that I found on a BDSM website when I was researching. It’s so people can go through a list of like, practically every remotely popular kink and talk them over. I downloaded a copy onto each of these tablets. Plus I downloaded some of the best articles I found about safe, healthy kink, and about what it means to be a Dom or a sub or a switch.” He looks down at one of the tablets on his lap, his ears turning red, and taps it with the Altean stylus that activates it. 

 

“I think that’s a great idea, Keith. Thank you,” says Shiro softly.

 

“There’s a kinky sex  _ list _ ?” says Lance, looking fascinated. “I wanna see!”

 

“I thought it might be easier if we went through it together. Everything on the list has a rating you can choose. Like if you’ve tried it or not, and then you can select how interested or not interested in it you are. You can rank a...thing....from ‘essential’ down to ‘hard limit,’ which means it’s something you’d never want to willingly do. We don’t have to if you guys don’t want to, but I know I’d really like to get past the talking phase to the  _ doing _ phase that Shiro keeps saying we’re not gonna until we figure more stuff out about each other, and I don’t think we can do that until we actually have an idea what that is.” Lance stares at him in fascination long enough for Keith to grow shifty and uncomfortable. “What?” he mutters.

 

“Dude, it’s just...I don’t think I’ve heard you say that many words in a row since I  _ met _ you,” says Lance. Shiro shoots him a severe look and he ducks his head. “Er. Sorry. You just...sort of always seem like the poster boy for taciturn.”

 

“That’s okay.  _ You _ always seemed like the kind of person who wouldn’t know what the word ‘taciturn’ actually meant,” Keith shoots back, but he’s smiling. “Guess we can both surprise each other a little.”

 

“Yeah, well maybe I prefer being an intergalactic man of mystery,” says Lance with a grin and a wink, shooting him his trademarked finger guns that have always made Keith want to break both his pointer fingers the hell off (at least after the twentieth or so time he’d done it), but which don’t seem to bother him so much anymore. He just rolls his eyes again and at least manages  _ not _ to smile. 

 

“Well, if the way you achieve that goal is by covering up how smart you actually are by acting like a giant doofus half the time, mission accomplished.” Lance blinks, mouth opening to fire back a snappy comeback that will of course wither Keith where he sits, but when the compliment not even subtly buried in the gentle ribbing registers in his brain, it leaves him speechless and he sits there for way too long with his mouth hanging open. Shiro, who knows as well as the rest of the team that Lance’s frequent blabber, outrageous flirting, and absurd prattle is a cover-up for some massive insecurities, doesn’t expect them to be cured overnight (though he sort of has hopes that more of Keith’s compliments like this one thrown in amongst the ribbing may help more than anything, because Keith has never pulled punches with Lance, either physically or verbally, and despite their past competitiveness and resentment, Lance also knows that Keith, among all of them, is the least likely to say nice things to him just to stroke his ego), nor for his new lovers to stop sniping at each other whenever one gives the other an opening....but he can see that the confusion, bitterness and anger behind it is gone and actually suspects that at least part of their fighting had always been a weird kind of flirting between them and that they both enjoyed the verbal banter. Since a lot of his ridiculousness had been directed at Keith from the beginning, and they’ve managed to figure out what  _ that _ was about, he has actually toned it down recently. The two still bicker and snipe at each other, moreso when other people are around, but there’s no real venom in it now, which has caused a few raised eyebrows from both Hunk and Pidge, but neither of them has said anything about it yet. The three of them had agreed together that they didn’t want to go public with the team until they’d had a little time to decide whether this thing is actually going to work out or not. The thought of  _ not _ fills Keith with a lung-crushing sort of terror he wouldn’t voice at this point under actual torture, because he doesn’t want to scare either of them by confessing that he needs this like he needs  _ air _ . 

 

Which is one of the multiple reasons he’d stifled his embarrassment, acquired the datapads and stylus from the ship’s matter compilers, then loaded all three of them up with all the actual  _ useful _ information he’s kept stored on his console the past few years. The List makes him nervous. More than nervous. He’s gone over it himself several times through the years as he’s learned what some of the things on it mean, and it terrifies him to share how many of the things on it interest him at the least...but the ones he’s been dreaming about for years, since well before he knew what any of it meant? What if it’s too much? And yet, this awkward stumbling around intimate subjects (mostly because Lance tends to freak out and start making dumb jokes when he gets too nervous or feels too exposed) isn’t getting them anywhere. Maybe some of the articles he’s downloaded onto the blue Paladin’s tablet about what it  _ really _ means to be a sub will help a little. Keith isn’t afraid of what he wants. He’s just afraid of being turned down for a lot of it. But hell, he’s been used to settling for less since he entered the system as a kid. If Shiro’s okay with trying  _ some _ of it, that’ll be enough. More than he’s ever imagined he’d really get to experience, because even though he’d known there were places he could have gone once he turned 18, clubs and stuff, where he could’ve found any number of Doms who would’ve been more than happy to help him explore his desires, but he’d never gone. He’d never been able to think about doing any of those things with anyone but Shiro. Until Lance had come along and he’d started having different kinds of fantasies for the first time since he’d figured out his dick could be used for more than pissing. Lance may frustrate him sometimes, but Keith really hopes Lance will be able to get it through his thick skull that being submissive doesn’t make you weak. That it’s the sub in a healthy relationship that actually holds the power. 

 

There’s an article on the tablet from a long time ago, written by a professional Domme who’d told some stories about some of her clients through the years...some intense, some hilarious, some a little scary...but one of her main points had been that the vast majority of her clients (not her personal subs; they were different) had been strong, powerful, wealthy men who ran companies and held high-power positions in government, requiring her discretion to enable them to experience their fantasies. That those sorts of men came to her because they had to be so strong, so in control, to put on brave faces even when things sucked, and sometimes they just needed to let someone else hold the reins so they could let go for a while. If this list thing doesn’t freak him out too much, Keith will make sure Lance reads that article at least twice. 

 

“This is a great idea, Keith,” says Shiro, smiling at him when he accepts the datapad Keith hands him a little hesitantly. “I’m so glad you did all of this, and had it with you. So what do you guy think? Do we each go through these on our own, then sort of compare the results and talk about them after, or just go through it together?”

 

“There are gonna be weird as shit moments either way,” says Lance, staring down at the pad Keith has handed him, keeping his eyes pinned on it as he feels his ears heat up. “I mean, this file is like, seven pages long! I’m not gonna know what some of this stuff means, so I’m not gonna know how to answer it on my own. I guess I think if I’m gonna be weirded out, it’s better if we just do it all together. Then maybe I won’t be the only one who has to ask what something means and feel stupid.”

 

“Trust me,” says Keith. “You shouldn’t feel stupid. The first time I read it, there was a  _ lot _ I had to look up.”

 

“Really? You’re...not just saying that to make me feel like...not a dumbass for not knowing this whole…” Lance waves his hands in the air eloquently. “.... _ Thing _ was an actual lifestyle choice and not just imaginary porn?” Keith smirks.

 

“Well, some of the  _ written _ porn  _ is _ just imaginary, because there are things the human body isn’t actually capable of without breaking. But come on. When’s the last time I ever said anything to  _ you _ just to make you feel better? Trust me. There’s some stuff on there I never would’ve dreamed was actually a thing.”

 

“Okay,” says Lance, relaxing a little. “Okay, yeah. Together then. Let’s do this. I’m sorta with Keith on this. I’m getting tired of jerking off thinking about what….happened….the other night. I get why you wanted us to slow down a little, Shiro, but it’s not like I haven’t  _ already _ been jerking off thinking about. This. You. Guys. Um. For months.” Shiro smiles, managing to stifle the laugh that makes his ribs creak a little at the effort of holding it inside, because it’s not like he hasn’t been a whole lot better.

 

“I get you,” he says. “I just want to make sure we do this right. The last thing I want is for this relationship to be based on  _ just _ sex...and. Um. Kink. Getting to know each other is important, and so is spending actual quality time together. But...yeah. I want to be with you both again too. So,” he says briskly, “who wants to do the reading part?”


	2. The List, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro, Keith and Lance begin to make their way through the BDSM Checklist, and fall into a gigantic hole of character development, background, and the Author's inability to write anything that matters to her in less than novel-length parts. Apparently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, I'm sorry this is taking so long. I've been having trouble with my meds not working for me so well lately, and pain tends to give me frustrating bouts of writer's block.
> 
> Second, I really did mean to get through the whole List in the second part, but I'm apparently incapable of doing that without expounding at great length. It's really because I love this ship so much. And also because I think it would be short-sighted and unrealistic of anyone proposing to explore kink when all involved are essentially newbies without actually, you know, TALKING about the list.
> 
> Also, it is a very long list. 
> 
> I promise, there WILL be smut. Likely in the next chapter.

“Will you do it?” asks Keith, picking at a loose thread in the stitching on one of his gloves. “I dunno. It just. Feels more right that way. If you’re gonna be our Dom?”

 

“Sure,” says Shiro. “As long as you don’t mind doing the explaining part, because I’m as likely as Lance is to not know what some of this stuff means.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Okay then, here goes.” Shiro taps the file on the tablet in his hands. The screen glows a soft white in the dim lighting of the room. “So it says here that lists like this are pretty hard to make perfect, since there are so many different things that people enjoy, but they’ve tried to make it as inclusive as possible. Um. The items on the list don’t specify as to whether you like to give or receive, so you’re supposed to answer it according to your role in the relationship. If you’re the dominant, you answer how you feel about doing these things to someone, and if you’re the submissive, how you feel about having them done to you, but you can specify however you want. There are boxes, yes or no, for whether you’ve tried something or not, and then there are some options too. Let’s see. It says….not applicable, for if something is a physical impossibility...I guess that means if you’re not the correct gender for it or if you have some kind of condition that makes it impossible?”

 

“Yeah,” says Keith. “I think it mostly means you can’t do the vaginal stuff if you don’t have one, but it’s also for people with disabilities and stuff. Except none of us do.” He’s looking very steadily at Shiro when he says this. Shiro glances down at his prosthetic arm and then shoots Keith a small smile.

 

“Not physical ones, no,” he says softly. “But I’m going to need you guys to know that there’s probably some stuff on here I could’ve done with no problem before Kerberos that  _ are _ going to be impossible for me now. If I mark something as not applicable, I’m going to ask you not to question it. I still have a lot of gaps in my memory, but there are things I know would trigger....negative reactions for me, even if I can’t explain exactly why yet.”

 

“Of course, Shiro.”

 

“Thank you. Okay, so then there’s a rating system. For how you feel about the activity. It goes….Essential, Love, Like, Don’t Mind, Dislike, Hate, Soft Limit and Hard Limit. There’s also one for Curious if you’ve never done something but you want to try it”

 

“What’s the difference between soft limit and hard limit?” asked Lance, reading along on his own tablet, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “Isn’t a limit just...a limit?”

 

“Soft limits are things you have no desire to do, but that you might consider with the right partner if it was really important to them, or things that scare you right now, but that you might be willing to try later after you trust the person….or, um, people….you’re with more.”

 

“Okay. That makes sense, actually.”

 

“Yeah, this list seems pretty user-friendly,” agrees Shiro, keeping his voice carefully even. This is supposed to be fun, and help them get to know more about each other, and learn each other’s interests, but he can’t help the small quiver of tension in his stomach. What if they want things he can’t give them?  _ Stop, _ he tells himself sternly.  _ You’re going to have to start trusting them, and yourself, or this isn’t going to work, and you know you want it to! _ He takes a deep breath in through his nose and lets it out through his mouth, part of the meditation technique the counseling program has taught him, then turns his attention back to the list. “So...the first thing on the list is...anal play.”

 

Keith smirks, but Lance falls back against the back of the sofa fizzing with hilarity.

 

“Nope, sorry, hard limit for me. Neither one of you are going near my asshole,” he snickers, then finally gets himself under control. Keith rolls his eyes and absolutely does not smile.

 

“Um. I’m pretty sure that one’s  _ essential, _ ” he says, leaning around Shiro to poke Lance, who pouts. “But if you hate it so much, that’s cool. All the fucking for me.”

 

“Hey!” Lance glares at him affronted. Shiro smiles. He can’t help it. They really are never going to stop, but he doesn’t think he wants them to. There’s affection in the way they look at each other, rather than anger, and the banter is teasing rather than combative. They’re so alive, so full of vibrant energy he can almost feel flowing over his skin, back and forth between them, and so beautiful to him that it almost takes his breath away. The difference between where he’d been last year and where he sits now almost makes his head spin a little bit. For so many months after he’d escaped his captors and ended up here, he’d truly believed himself too damaged to ever be able to be in a relationship, but despite all that self-doubt, he’d looked at them, fought beside them,  _ watched _ them no matter how hard he’d tried not to. And he’d been unable to keep himself from wanting. To be wanted back, with no sign of hesitation on their parts, is a gift that humbles him. That they also trust him to do things to them that, to many people who don’t understand the difference, seem to skirt or even cross the line into hurt or violence...it blows his mind. But they  _ do _ , and in trusting him, they show him how to trust himself. He chuckles softly.

 

“I’m pretty sure there could be a little more involved in anal play than just fucking,” he says with a smirk. “At least, I’d like to think I can be a little more creative than that.” How creative he does or doesn’t actually think he’s going to be able to get is utterly irrelevant because all he cares about is the way two pairs of eyes darken as they look at him, the way Lance bites his bottom lip and Keith’s mouth falls open for a second before they both shake it off.

 

“Um. Yeah,” says Lance, ever so slightly breathless. “Definitely essential.” Shiro grins.

 

“I agree.”

 

The next item on the list is “Beating,” at which Shiro actually manages not to cringe even mentally, because he knows there’s a difference, that anything he’ll ever do to these two young men will never,  _ ever _ compare to anything…

 

It also turns out to be made up of multiple listings, not just as a general listing. Wow, the list is pretty thorough. Under the heading there are first listed a wide array of objects with which a person can be struck. Canes, crops, floggers, hairbrushes, hands, straps and whips. Lance complains that there isn’t a listing for wooden spoons so he can at least check “Yes,” for one more thing he’s done, so Keith edits the file and adds a new line. Lance smiles happily and taps the “Yes” box, then squirms a little as he shyly moves the stylus over to the next column and checks “Love.” Shiro does the same. Keith hesitates for a moment, then does the same. Shiro frowns in concern.

 

“Why the hesitation?”

 

“I...I did love it. I just….well, it broke, you know,” he mutters. Shiro leans a little closer, running his fingers through the soft strands of Keith’s hair. Keith sighs, pressing into the touch, then gasps when Shiro’s fingers tighten into a fist.

 

“Don’t worry,” he growls softly into Keith’s ear. “The next time you’re bad, I  _ promise _ I’ll beat your perfect ass with something that won’t break.” Keith shuders softly and proceeds to check “Curious” by every single item under the listing. Lance squirms a little uncomfortably, frowning, his stylus in his hand, hovering over the datapad. All the instincts he’s been following since they’d fled Earth in his lion are telling him not to let Keith one-up him, to brazen it out and check all of those boxes too. It’s….it’s just what they  _ do. _ Keith sighs.

 

“It’s not a competition, Lance, don’t be stubborn about this. We all already  _ know _ I like pain more than you do. That doesn’t mean I’m better at something than you. It’s not any different from the fact that I like the color red and you prefer blue,” he says a little tiredly, because he’s  _ still _ not exactly sure why Lance had ever decided in the first place that they had to be rivals in everything. 

 

“Lance,” says Shiro sternly, “it’s time to cut out this competitiveness between you two. I don’t know where it came from, but one thing I’m almost positive about, even if Keith’s done more research on this subject than I have is that two subs competing over everything all the time sounds like a really fast way to ruin a relationship like this. I’ll be honest. I’m not sure how I’m going to feel about hitting someone with a whip. Not that we have anything like that anyway. I’m willing to try, because I know there’s going to be a big difference between a whip that’s used on someone because they’re into it and the ones the Galra used on their slaves. Those had metal spikes all along them. I guess because the Galra, and other alien races as well, have really tough skin, but they didn’t give a damn if someone  _ didn’t _ . Some of them were electric, too. I....I don’t  _ exactly _ have memories, just flashes, but I know what some of the scars on my back look like…”

 

“Shiro,” whispers Keith in horror. “I’ll cross it off. It’s no big deal. There are plenty of other things…”

 

“No,” says Shiro firmly. “I want everybody to answer all of these things honestly. It’s not like I know literally nothing about BDSM. I’ve seen pictures, a few videos, and there was a fetish store in Tokyo that I used to pass on my way from my grandparents’ house to one of my friends’ places when I’d go there to visit. They changed their window display pretty often, and I’ve seen what some of the whips people use for S&M play look like. They’re mostly just plain, braided leather. Nothing like the same thing. They also look like they require a certain amount of skill to use, and since I’ve never even picked one up, I definitely wouldn’t use it on either of you unless I could find a way to learn how to use it safely. I had a classmate at the Garrison who got engaged his final year, and a bunch of us threw him a bachelor party. Someone got him a cheap bullwhip as a gag gift, said he should give it to his wife since she’d be the one cracking the whip. It was just a joke, but some of the guys were playing with it in the dorm room. It was pretty cheaply made, not the sort of thing I think anyone who was actually really into playing with something like that would be caught dead owning...but they were trying to crack it, and one guy messed up, yanked too hard on the thing or something, and it snapped back and hit him in the eye. It was swollen almost shut for a couple of days.”

 

“What an idiot,” mutters Keith, but he still looks distressed. Shiro turns to face him.

 

“Keith, I need you to trust me to try to get past the things that were done to me, not try to shield me from them for the rest of my life. That’s what recovery means. I give you my word that I won’t do anything to you that triggers me, but I need you to give me  _ your _ word that you won’t hide the things you want just because you think they might upset me.”

 

“Okay,” says Keith, nodding firmly, and leaves the X where it is. Lance keeps staring at the list a little longer, then finally checks “Curious” beside all the items on the list except for canes and whips.

 

“I may change my mind, but right now, those two just sort of freak me out. I saw some pictures of someone’s ass after they’d been caned one time when I was searching for...uh...certain subjects,” he says, flushing red underneath the rich tan of his skin. “It...looked pretty awful.”

 

“That’s why there’s also these other two listings,” says Keith, pointing out the words “Hard” and “Soft” under the Beating category. “Just because someone hits you with something that  _ can _ hurt you really bad doesn’t mean they have to.”

 

“Oh. Okay then,” says Lance. Keith checks both boxes without hesitation as things he wants to try. “I guess I’m curious about what it’d feel like to get. Um. Hit a little harder by certain things. Too. But I don’t know whether I’ll like it or not.”

 

“That’s okay,” says Shiro. “Nobody knows whether they’re going to like something until they try it. I promise I’ll never just whale on you with anything you’ve never felt before until we both know whether we’re going to enjoy it or not. Deal?”

 

“That’s...okay, that sounds good.” Lance nods, his body relaxing back against the curve of the sofa, shoulder pressed against Shiro’s. “I wonder why they included hands in this part though. I mean, it doesn’t seem like the right place, y’know? How’s getting your ass smacked with someone’s hand anything like getting beaten with a whip?”  He hears Keith snort and leans out to look at him suspiciously “What?”

 

“Dude, have you  _ seen _ Shiro’s hands?”

 

“Of course I have, asshat. Intimately, in case you got hit in the head hard enough in that last fight to get amnesia. Maybe you should have Coran take a look at you,” he retorts with a leer. Keith sighs and reaches over to grab Shiro’s left wrist, lifting it up and urging Shiro to spread out his fingers. The black paladin obliges easily enough.

 

“My memory’s just fine, smartass. Look at the size of his hand. It’s like, almost as big as a dinner plate, and I think  _ you’re _ the one who needs your head examined because you’ve apparently forgotten all the muscles in his arm it’s attached to. Yeah, maybe a riding crop might leave more welts or bruises, but if he wanted to, Shiro could break your bony ass with his hand if he wanted to.”

 

“First, that’s never going to happen,” says Shiro, giving them both a severe look. “And second, unless you’d both like a demonstration I  _ can _ ensure you won’t like, you’ll stop this and stay focused on what we’re trying to do.” 

 

Again with the speculative looks. Shiro sighs. Maybe someday he’ll remember who he was talking to  _ before _ resorting to those kinds of threats. Nah, probably not. He has to admit to himself he’s sort of looking forward to them pushing him hard enough to follow through with the threat. Lance seems to get the point though, and they’re able to move on. The “Beating” category is awfully thorough, because the next part of it is “Location.” 

 

“Holy shit,” whispers Lance as Shiro reads. “Ass and back I get. I mean, those make sense. It’s what you see on the porn clips and stuff. But people  _ do _ this other stuff? Chest, feet, legs…. _ genitals _ ?”

 

“You remember that you liked being bitten on the insides of your thighs, right?” asks Keith, his voice a little lower and rougher than it had been a minute ago. “I know I liked it when you did it to me. And...well, Shiro got pretty close to the backs of my legs with that spoon, I don’t know about you.”

 

“Oh,” breathes Lance. “Yeah….I see your point.”

 

“Your skin is so soft there,” says Shiro softly. “I’d assume it’s very sensitive as well.” Lance lets out a small whimper. Keith bites his lip and marks “Like” beside the legs category, underneath where he’s marked “Essential” beside the word Bottom. 

 

“But...but  _ genitals _ ? I’m pretty sure I don’t want anybody anywhere near my junk with a whip, my dudes, no offense!” Keith laughs.

 

“Ok, I’m actually with you on that one. But you know, some guys like having their junk slapped around a little, or some teeth during a blow job. Or even more intense pain down there. I don’t think I’d like it, but I’m not gonna knock what anybody else is into, as long as nobody’s getting like, abused or anything. And I do. Actually. Like to be bitten. Um. A little bit….there….as long as it’s not too hard.” He mutters the last, not looking at the other two.

 

“Yeah?” Lance’s voice is almost a purr. “Noted.” Keith shrugs one shoulder, trying to play it cool, but his face is a little too flushed as he stares hard at the entry on the tablet in his lap before he continues.

 

“And anyway, your dick and balls aren’t the only parts of your genitals. In this case,” he finally says, fidgeting a little. Lance’s mind blanks out for several seconds, although Shiro seems to understand what Keith’s talking about because he’s looking at the red paladin with what can only be described as a devilish expression on his face, one tiny corner of his mouth curling into a little smirk.

 

“You really are a filthy little boy, aren’t you?” he murmurs in that low growl that gives both of them shivers of excitement. Lance blinks, feeling hot and squirmy even though he doesn’t know  _ why _ . As Shiro looks Keith directly in the eye a marks “Curious” beside that one, it just...clicks.

 

“You mean...you’re talking….about….about….getting  _ hit _ on your...your…,” he fumbles. Keith sighs and facepalms.

 

“You know, for someone who’s been bragging about their expertise for all these months  _ and _ who claims to have watched as much porn as you have, you are seriously the most naive person I’ve ever met. I have no idea why it’s cute. You still can’t even say the word ‘spanking’ out loud yet, can you? Some people like being spanked on their asshole, Lance. I don’t think it’d be fun to get fucked after if it was very hard, but I read it can make everything way more sensitive. And even your oblivious ass has noticed that I like pain. So yeah, I’m curious,” says Keith. Lance feels his whole body flush with heat.

 

“I am too, now,” agrees Shiro in a low voice.

 

“Oh my god. I don’t know whether to be terrified or turned on right now. My dick hasn’t been confused this many times since I hit puberty,” complains Lance, wriggling around to try to find a more comfortable position because his hardening dick is making him less-so.

 

“Doesn’t actually look like your  _ dick  _ is the one who’s confused,” Keith deadpans.

 

“F-fuck you,” breathes Lance. Shiro places a hand on his thigh and  _ squeezes. _

 

“Getting closer to that demonstration,” he says placidly. Lance snaps his mouth shut and hunches back into the couch, biting his tongue because too much of him  _ wants _ one. Shiro hums in pleasure and turns the warning squeeze into a gentle stroke up his thigh. Which doesn’t exactly, you know,  _ help. _

 

They finally make it through the “Beating” listing with it’s many variations, and the next two are easy. They unanimously mark “Bestiality” and “Biting” as a hard limit and “Essential” respectively. “Blindfolds” is next, and Lance quickly marks that one as “Curious,” because just thinking about Shiro and Keith doing stuff to him while he can’t see what’s happening sends a thrill down his spine. He looks at Keith in surprise when he marks it as a soft limit. Keith hunches his shoulders and glares at the tablet in his lap.

 

“Look, I may change my mind about this one, but in one of the group homes where I was put for a while, the old lady who ran it used to lock kids in the basement when she thought we were misbehaving. She had all these really strict rules and it was literally impossible to obey them all, there were so many and they were so unreasonable. Children were supposed to be seen and not heard. You and your clothes had to be spotless  _ all _ the time. You always had to clean your plate, even if you were sick. There weren’t any lights or windows or anything down there. And I’ve just...never been very good at obeying rules I think are stupid, even when I was only eight. So I just. I don’t like not being able to see what’s going on. I don’t freak or anything, I just don’t like it,” he explains uncomfortably. 

 

“That woman had no business being allowed to foster children, Keith,” says Shiro gently, squeezing the younger boy’s shoulder with the air of someone who’s heard the story before.

 

“No business?” says Lance hotly, rage boiling up in the pit of his stomach when he thinks about Keith as a little boy being trapped, alone and scared in the dark with no one to comfort him. His own family is loud and chaotic, and they get mad sometimes and even yell, but his parents would never hurt one of their children that way. Maybe there were times he felt a little lost amongst his throng of talented siblings, and maybe that accounts for some of the reasons he’s so loud sometimes and why he can’t seem to stop worrying about being good enough, but those are his own issues, because his mother and father have never made him feel like they don’t love him. “She should have been put in fucking  _ prison _ .” Keith’s smile in response is brief, but it makes him feel warm all over. He resolves then and there to make a beeline for Keith’s room if the Castle ever has another power outage like it has once or twice when some system or other has gone down and Coran has had to reroute power to fix the problem. They can wait out the dark together. Maybe he can even think of a couple of interesting ways to distract his teammate. No, his  _ boyfriend. _ Damn, it’s still a little hard to get used to!

 

“Body Modification” is another one with subcategories; piercing (both permanent and temporary), branding, scarification, tattoos, and saline injection. They all agree on these as well that they don’t want to include any of them in anything they do in the bedroom, but also agree that piercings are pretty cool if anybody wants any, and it surprises Keith, when he confesses (with some embarrassment) that he’s been thinking about getting Voltron’s symbol tattooed on himself somewhere if the opportunity ever arises and both Lance and Shiro agree with him. It’s more surprising for Shiro to say something like that, but Shiro gives a crooked grin.

 

“Guess I’ve always done a pretty good job of making everyone believe I was as much of a straight arrow on the inside as I seemed on the outside,” he says a little ruefully. “But yeah, I’ve actually kind of always wanted a tattoo.”

 

“Why  _ did _ you always try so hard to act so perfect, if that’s not how you really feel?” asks Keith, to whom this is an entirely foreign concept.

 

“Even though there aren’t nearly as many people in Japan who stick to older, traditional ways as there used to be, most of my family’s still pretty traditional. As the oldest….and the only son, my parents and grandparents always had high expectations. My great-grandfather died in the Unification Wars back in the mid-2000’s. He was a pilot. He was this huge hero, and I knew I wanted to be a pilot like him. My family was really proud of that, but they always made it really clear to me that if I wanted to live up to his legacy, everything I did had to be beyond reproach. I didn’t want to let any of them down, but even more than that, I wanted my chance to fly, and they drilled it into my head when I was really young so the lesson stuck.” He chuckles softly. “They’d have been horrified if they could have seen inside my head sometimes though.”

 

“Well I’m not,” says Keith. “I’m relieved as hell. But you still do it, you know. You try too hard to be perfect, Shiro. Nobody on this ship expects that of you.”

 

“Yeah,” echoes Lance. “You don’t have to pretend with us, Shiro. I like the deviant you. I mean, you’ve always been hot, but the little bit of a sadistic side is way hotter. Plus, you with tattoos?  _ So _ droolworthy.”

 

“You’re so gross, Lance,” says Keith. Lance sticks out his tongue. Shiro clears his throat meaningfully. He figures it’s only a matter of time though. It’s been a week since they had sex, and the topics on this list of Keith’s are bringing up all kinds of thoughts for all of them. He just hopes they manage to actually get through the thing before they push over the line. Not that having to deal with their bratty behavior is going to be much of a burden. They’re not the only ones who have been thinking about it since that first night. 

 

“Okay, what’s saline injection though?” asks Lance.

 

“I’m wondering about that one myself,” agrees Shiro, shaking off his errant thoughts. Keith smirks.

 

“Well, sometimes it’s just, like, injecting saline under the skin to give someone bigger tits temporarily, or give them fake ones if they don’t have them to start with. But when I first read this list, I’d never heard of it either, so I looked it up. Some of the images I found were so out there to me that I saved them. There’s files on both your tablets, the ones labeled ‘saline?’ I knew someone would ask, so I downloaded them. Go on. Take a look.”

 

The pictures of guys with their nuts inflated to the size of baseballs make Shiro wince in sympathy and Lance cover his junk protectively. But the ones of women with inflations on their foreheads that look like someone’s surgically implanted a doughnut under their skin are just...too weird for all of them.

 

“Why?” says Lance in morbid fascination. Keith shrugs.

 

“I have no idea, man. Some people would think we were just as weird for being in a relationship that has three people in it, or getting turned on by Shiro ‘punishing’ us. It’s not dangerous if you know what you’re doing, apparently. Your body just absorbs the saline after a few days. I don’t guess the boob inflation is all that weird. Some people just like the idea of having bigger ones but don’t wanna actually have the surgery. We may think the giant lips and facial inflation looks weird as fuck, but who are we to judge, y’know? Still, I can’t help wondering why anybody’d think that looks hot. They almost look like aliens. I guess if we all had to pass as non-human for some reason, we can inject saline donuts into our foreheads and stuff.” Lance shudders.

 

“I….think I’ll just keep my helmet on, if it comes to that,” he says, and crosses of saline injection as a limit. 

 

The Bondage category has almost as many listings as the Beating one had, but except for inverted suspension, they all agree to being curious about most of the forms, even though it’s probably going to be hard to get ahold of many of the materials for some of it in their current situation, and mark Breast Bondage as “Not Applicable,” Even if Shiro’s pectoral muscles are ridiculous, and even if he had the desire for it (he doesn’t, but he does surprise both of them by telling them that after he’s gotten a little more comfortable and worked through some more “things,” he thinks he wouldn’t mind letting them tie him up sometime if they want to, at which they’re both immediately imagining riding him really slow while he can’t do anything but lie there and enjoy it), his muscles are way too tight to wrap a rope around. 

 

Somehow Lance isn’t surprised when Keith puts “curious” by Breath Control too. He himself doesn’t mark it as a limit or anything  but gives it a low rating. Images of Shiro shoving him against a wall with his powerful hand around Lance’s throat isn’t even a little bit scary, because he’s already experienced a little bit of what being manhandled by Shiro can be like and he’s all about the Yes on that one, but actually not being able to breathe sounds a little scary. Shiro looks at Keith thoughtfully for several seconds.

 

“This,” he taps the listing with his stylus, “can be dangerous, can’t it?”

 

“Well,” says Keith, frowning and picking at one of his fingernails, “yeah. I mean, it can be taken too far. But that’s not what I’m asking for. I mean, I know I’m kind of an adrenaline junkie, and my impulse control isn’t the best, but I don’t want to get  _ actually _ hurt, especially because we can’t do anything that would risk us being able to form Voltron.”

 

“I’m glad to hear that.” says Shiro sincerely, though he still looks a little concerned. “But isn’t it kind of hard to use your safeword when you can’t breathe?”

 

“I mean, I don’t  _ know _ , but I’d assume so, yeah. But I’ve read about stuff like that too. You come up with alternate ways to safeword any time you’re not going to be able to speak. Like,,,tapping out, or snapping your fingers. Or you hold something in your hand that’ll make noise when you drop it, so even if you can’t use your voice, you still have a way of letting the other person know to stop”

 

Shiro’s eyebrows lift in surprise. He’s been spending the past several years trying to block out his dominant tendencies because he’d assumed they were a bad thing. That there was something wrong with him, to make him want to control someone else, or even hurt them. He’s felt even more guilty for them since he was captured, because a part of him had wondered if those impulses had somehow made it easier for the Galra to get him to become their arena Champion. But the more he listens to Keith explain the things on this list, the more he realizes that there’s a lot more to this kinky stuff than he’d ever imagined. It makes him feel a little bit stupid for not letting his curiosity lead him to research the way the younger paladin had. Sure, there are probably plenty of people out there doing unsafe things, and assholes using supposedly consensual S&M play as a cover for real abuse, but there are even more assholes out there who are just...abusive. There’s so much  _ thought _ behind all of this. So many checks set in place to make sure everyone is safe. This, at it’s core, isn’t about control or pain, it’s about trust. Communication. Well, okay, the control and pain are part of it too in a lot of cases, but it’s a give-and-take, not just taking. Looking out of the corners of his eyes at each of his lovers, he feels a combination of relief, excitement, and more than a little foolishness. He’s been missing out on so much for so many years. He’d put the brakes on their physical intimacy partly because he  _ does _ believe it’s important to spend time together cementing bonds that are still pretty new and fragile, but also partly because part of him had been worried about being too seduced by the thrill of having them both in his hands the way he’d dreamed of for so long and getting lost in it, then, in ignorance, making some kind of terrible mistake. 

 

Though Keith’s fairly extensive research and how much he seems to have already learned about all of this does surprise him a little (Keith’s always been more of a doer than a researcher), he’s grateful for it. Most of his fears are already assuaged, and now he finds himself eager to get through this intriguing list and start a little more  _ doing _ of his own.

 

“Okay,” he says with a smile. “Then I’m good with giving it a try. We’ll go slow though. I’m not willing to damage you.” Keith gives him a smile in return, and relaxes.

 

“Cool.” He knows his voice doesn’t reflect his state of mind. At all. His brain is, in fact, reeling a little. He’d honestly been more than a little scared to do this with them. To really let them see how sick he really is, to be honest about the things he wants. He can’t explain why painful, even borderline violent things attract him so much. He’s never been good at feeling anything but anger. No, that’s too mild a term. Rage. Rage at his parents for leaving him an orphan. Rage at the system that had tried to swallow him whole and spit him out ruined, and really, had mostly succeeded because he’s so  _ bad _ at any kind of relationship at all, even friendship, because he’d learned  _ one thing _ as an orphan and a foster kid, and that had been that the only person he could trust was himself. He’d learned to keep his feelings to himself, because if he showed them, he would inevitably be hurt. He’d gotten so good at not showing them that he’d become almost completely numb and the only thing he’d been capable of feeling had been his rage. And he’d learned in his early teens, experimenting with mostly other foster kids, boys like him who didn’t expect anything from him because it wouldn’t last anyway, that a little bit of pain both made the rage back off a little and made him feel almost peaceful afterwards. He understands more about it now, from his research, that pain releases both endorphins and a sort of opiate response in the brain’s chemistry that produce a sort of euphoria, and also that it drains off a lot of his stress and anger so that he can function more or less as something like a human being. But he’d still been scared. There are so many things he wants to try, has been longing to try with Shiro almost since they’d met, until Shiro had gone away, and died, leaving him alone again. Facing Shiro’s rejection of his desires, of him, is terrifying, and yet, if they’re going to try this, Keith can’t settle for less than giving them both the truth. 

 

But neither one of them seem horrified, or grossed out by him. By the saline inflation maybe, but not by Keith. In fact, Shiro mostly just keeps saying yes, or let’s try. And even when Lance has no interest in something Keith  _ does, _ or is outright scared of it, he doesn’t seem to be judging. And so Keith’s head is spinning, because apparently not only will he have a chance to get some small taste of the things he’s fantasized about for so long, he’s going to get to at least  _ try _ most of it, if not everything. His throat clogs with emotion. He’s learned to feel since they’d rescued Shiro from the Garrison and fled to space. Learned about friendship and loyalty, learned how to laugh and joke, learned to care about other people and let them care about him in return. And now, against everything he’s ever believed his whole life (at least all of it he can remember), he knows what love feels like when someone….some _ ones _ ….love you back. He clears his throat surreptitiously as Shiro moves on to the next thing on the list.

 

“Um. Catheters,” says Shiro dubiously. It’s almost hilarious how all their legs close a little at the same time when he says it out loud. They look at each other and Lance giggles. Then Keith snickers, and Shiro laughs, rubbing a hand through the short, fine hairs on the back of his head. “Are you guys going to be super disappointed if I say I’m not sure I’m very turned on by the prospect of inserting plastic tubes into your urethras for you to pee through?”

 

“Ohh, devastated,” says Lance, still giggling, and taps “soft limit” on his tablet. Keith agrees with that choice. It’s not that he’s  _ scared _ of the idea, it just doesn’t sound very sexy. 

 

“There is something sort of in that category that sounds a little less...gross and clinical though,” he offers hesitantly. “I only read about it, but it….”

 

“What?” asks Shiro, dubious but curious.

 

“Well, it’s called sounding.”

 

“You mean like with a well, to see how deep it is?” asks Lance. Keith blinks at him in confusion.

 

“No. I don’t know anything about that. Sounding is….well, it’s using small stainless steel or glass rods, and you. Um. Insert them. In the same place.” Lance’s mouth opens and closes soundlessly, which is practically a first for him.

 

“No way. People do that? On purpose? For  _ fun _ ? Ay, that’s...I don’t even.”

 

“Look, I know it sounds sort of crazy, and like it would hurt, and maybe it does, I don’t  _ know. _ But the article I read didn’t make it seem that way. I mean, if you do it right. Sometimes it does hurt, but the author of the article said that, unless everyone involved  _ wants _ it to hurt, it means you’re doing it wrong. Sounds were invented like, a really long time ago as a medical device, because back before antibiotics, when people got urinary tract infections over and over again, there’d start to be scarring in there, and it could even get bad enough so they couldn’t piss anymore, and doctors would use sounds to like, open them back up again. I’m sure that….wasn’t much fun. But if you  _ don’t _ have any scarring in there, and I’m sure none of us do because health care has improved so much since hundreds of years ago, and you actually use a really smooth, small rod and lubrication, it’s supposed to be like getting your dick stroked on the inside. And then if you do it on the outside at the same time, it’s supposed to feel amazing. Plus you can use it for edging like we did to you the first time, because if something’s inside your dick, you can’t shoot. And  _ you _ ,” Keith leans over to poke Lance again with a wicked grin, “got off on being teased and denied the  _ whole time _ .”

 

Lance’s face goes through a fascinating transformation over the course of Keith’s description; from disgust to doubt to curiosity to interest to fascination and finally morphs into a look of slightly glassy, dark-eyed desire. He jumps like he’s been shocked when Keith pokes him and blushes beneath his creamy brown skin.

 

“Y-you...you’re sure it doesn’t hurt?” he whispers. Shiro chuckles.

 

“I don’t think it should be all that hard to come up with a very thin, smooth steel rod,” he muses.

 

“Not hard at all,” Keith agrees. “And I’m not sure, but I know it’s not supposed to, unless you’re into pain there and want to use a larger one that sort of, um, stretches you, so all we’d have to do is stop if it isn’t awesome.”

 

“Oh. Right. Yeah. How did you edit this form again?” Lance asks, turning the datapad around in his hands as if he’s looking for a keyboard. Keith manages not to laugh and adds a note next to “Catheters” to include “Sounding” as a subcategory, and they all change their answers.

 

“Clothespins” is next.

 

“What the fuck is a clothespin?” asks Lance. “Why would we want to pin our clothes onto each other? That just sounds kind of awful. And a little bit bloody.”

 

“I didn’t know either,” says Keith. “That was another one I had to look up. They were these wooden or plastic clamps that people used to use before laundering systems were invented, and even for a while after that, because originally it wasn’t one system. There were separate machines for washing and drying clothes, and some people didn’t have dryers, so they hung their clothes up on lines outside to dry in the sun, only of course they had to have a way to clamp the clothes onto the line, because if it was a windy day, the clothes would blow away. This list was made a long time ago. I found a couple of modern ones, but they were actually a lot less thorough than this one, so this is the list I kept, even though it originated like, a hundred years ago. So what it really means is any kind of little clamp, that you can use on your skin to sort of pinch. Especially on your nipples. I guess it feels sort of like being bitten there, but you leave the clamps on for however long you want.”

 

“I want to try that, if we can find some kind of tiny clamps that are adjustable,” says Shiro abruptly. Keith and Lance look at him in surprise. His smirk is almost evil. It makes Keith feel like squirming, and Lance actually does. “You both seemed to like it a lot when I bit you there. I want to know how you’ll react when I put clamps on them and leave them until they’re all red and tender, and then I bite them some more.”

 

Oh well fuck. Now Keith actually is squirming, a little. Damn it, this side of Shiro is  _ lethal. _

 

“Okay,” he manages to say breathlessly. Lance just nods.

 

The next category is clothing, and it ranges from having your outfits chosen for you to different kinds of lingerie to assorted BDSM types of wear like hoods, masks, harnesses….and materials like leather, rubber, and things like that. They talk a few of them over, but their clothing choices are pretty limited. They have what they were wearing when they left work, and what the Castle’s replicators produce for them, which are pretty much geared for function. They agree to revisit the category if they ever find a space mall or outpost that offers choices that will fit a human body and might at least resemble any of the things on the list.

 

“Okay, sounds like a good plan. Some of these sound kind of interesting. If there’s a way to do it without getting too personal, I’ll try to talk to Coran about learning to use the ship’s matter compilers. Unfortunately, I kind of think they’re attuned to work for Altean DNA or something like that, but maybe not. Maybe it’s just that the technology is so far beyond our understanding, but I’d take the time to learn if I could. I mean, those things produce all of our clothes we didn’t have on us when we got here, furniture, dishes, flatware, the drones we use for training...I’m pretty sure they’re capable of just about anything. I’m just not sure how much I want Coran to know about the more...personal...details of our relationship,” says Shiro. Lance snickers.

 

“Yeah, talk about awkward. Hey Coran, I need you to program the compilers to make me a butt plug, a bondage harness, and a whole bunch of stuff I can use to beat the crap out of people for fun, thanks dude,” he laughs.

 

“....Maybe I’ll just check and see how Pidge is coming with hacking that particular programming instead,” muses Shiro. Lance gasps loudly in mock outrage

 

“Rulebreaker!  _ You _ , Sir, are a bad influence on us impressionable youth!”

 

“We,” says Keith loftily.

 

“What?”

 

“It’s  _ we _ impressionable youth.”

 

“Oh my god, seriously?”

 

“Guys,” says Shiro.

 

“He’s right though,  _ Sir, _ ” smirks Keith. “Hacking the castle for sex toys? I’m so disappointed in you.” He grins the whole time he’s saying it, because for some reason it makes him almost unbearably happy to hear Shiro say something like that. He’s the only one who knows that Shiro used to help him break into the flight simulator using one of the professors’ code that he’d stolen so that Keith could practice the sims he wasn’t supposed to be allowed to run until third year, and sometimes snuck up onto the roof of the sciences building to stargaze with him when all the rules and regulations would start to make Keith feel twitchy and penned in. Shiro grins back at both of them, sharp with white teeth.

 

“First of all, Pidge is going to do it anyway, whether anyone tries to stop her or not and second…”

 

“Yeah? What’s second?” asks Lance when Shiro trails off with a raised eyebrow.

 

“You both seem to have forgotten that I don’t have to smile and put up with your lip anymore,” says Shiro with an even more dangerous smile than the first one. It sends a small thrill zinging up Keith’s spine. Getting practically everything he’s ever wanted  _ and _ glimpses of the old Shiro...the  _ real _ Shiro back all in the course of a few days? It feels too good to be true. Like a thing that shouldn’t,  _ couldn’t _ be happening to someone like him, and yet it  _ is _ . 

 

“Well yeah, but you’re not gonna….I mean, we’re just kidding around, right Keith?” laughs Lance nervously. Keith folds his arms and tries to look stubborn and intractable, which used to be one of his two or three default expressions but which has lately been replaced by an almost irresistible urge to break out in random grins. Lance is on his own. “Haha...I mean, you’re not gonna…”

 

“Spank you?” says Shiro cheerfully.

 

“R-right.”

 

“You know, I think I really am.” Lance gulps, and his eyes dart nervously towards the door. They’re off in an unused wing of the castle ship, but still, the door isn’t locked.

 

“Oh, but…” 

 

Shiro’s grin widens.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro makes good on his threat, then it's back to the List.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this, of course, got insanely long, but I just really, really wanted to finish this story in the series so I can move on to more doing and less talking. 
> 
> Of course there will be plenty of filth in the next installment. Any thoughts on which List items Shiro ought to choose? I might be open to suggestions.
> 
> Also, please hear me on this. I've written this story true to the characters of these young men as I personally am interpreting them, with past histories I've invented along with facts from the series. I've chosen the kinks I think my versions of them would have...and not have. Some are my own kinks and some are not. This is also not a totally complete list, but it is a pretty good one. It would be virtually impossible to cover everything involved with BDSM. If I've had Shiro, Keith or Lance reject a kink that happens to be one of yours, please don't think it's because I think there's anything wrong with it. There's only one kink listed on this list that I personally believe is actually unhealthy, but it is for physical health reasons and safety, not because it makes you a bad person if it turns you on. There are even a couple of personal kinks of mine that I've had one or more of them cross off because of story elements I've chosen to make part of their pasts. As long as the kink you practice is safe, consensual, negotiated and doesn't harm you or your partner physically or emotionally, it is 100% okay, and you shouldn't feel ashamed of it, even if it's unusual.

_ Jesus, _ thinks Lance a little inanely,  _ his Galra arm is so fuckin’ fast, _ as Shiro’s prosthetic hand flashes out faster than he can even  _ see _ , fastening around his upper arm and yanking him face-first over Shiro’s lap.  _ How did I not know that? How is that  _ fair?? Lance’s brain has always resorted to strangely inane thoughts in moments when he finds himself at a disadvantage, backed into a corner, or otherwise off-balance. Not that he’s  _ scared. _ Sure, his heart rate suddenly triples, and his stomach is abruptly filled with about a million butterflies….or something Coran would have some weird-sounding Altean name for….but Shiro’s grip doesn’t hurt him. In fact, despite the dizzying speed with which he’s upended, he still has the impression that Shiro’s being very careful with him. Probably if it was Hunk’s arm Shiro’s hand was locked around it would hurt a little, but Lance’s arms and legs have always been lanky ( _ No, _ they are  _ not _ skinny anymore, thankyouverymuch, but corded with lean muscle now thanks to all the literally insane amount of training they do), and Shiro’s hands are indeed almost the breadth of dinner plates, which means he can completely close around the blue paladin’s bicep without having to squeeze even a little, and he’s settled over Shiro’s muscular thighs without knocking the breath out of his lungs. Not that he’d admit it, of course. No, the high-pitched, almost squeaky gasp that escapes his lips is totally  _ not _ all him. 

 

“W-wait,” he stammers, struggling a little because he feels like it. Struggling, that is, not escaping, but he’s dead certain he couldn’t escape if he wanted to.

 

“What’s your safeword?” asks Shiro pleasantly. 

 

“Um. R-red,” gasps Lance.

 

“Good boy. And if you just need me to slow down, or to re-negotiate?”

 

“Oh...I….yellow.”

 

“That’s right. And Lance?”

 

“Yeah? I...I mean yes? Sir?” His face burns hot, almost as hot as the rest of his body.

 

“Don’t think I don’t know how much you like to beg, so I’m going to ignore anything you say except for those words. All right?” Shiro’s voice is calm and gentle, and Lance knows that the question is not rhetorical. Shiro really is asking. Asking if this is okay, if what he’s proposing is okay, is giving Lance an out if he wants one, or a chance to change the call. But fuck, unlocked door be damned, he doesn’t. He gives a tiny nod of agreement, hiding his face in the soft cushion of the rounded sofa, the top of his head pressed against the length of Keith’s thigh.

 

“Y-you can’t do this,” he gasps, bucking his hips and kicking a little, which of course Shiro uses to his advantage, reaching deftly under Lance’s skinny hips and popping open the snap on his jeans. A swift tug at the next lurch and his zipper parts. “S-stop! Someone could come in!” His pants and underwear are yanked swiftly down to the middle of his thighs, baring his ass to the cool, recirculated air of the room (and his already-hard dick to the firmness of Shiro’s thigh, against which he ruts for a few seconds, pretending that he’s trying to squirm out of the black paladin’s grasp). “Besides, I didn’t  _ do _ anything!”

 

“Look at you,” growls Shiro in a low voice, leaning down, curling over Lance’s body a little so he can speak close to his ear. “You’re already hard. Such a dirty boy.”

 

“Shiro,  _ no _ ,” whimpers Lance, wracked by a full-body shiver when Shiro’s warm, human hand slides over the curve of his naked cheeks and down one thigh, fingers curling to brush the sensitive skin inside his leg, flesh pebbling in the wake of the tender touch.

 

“Oh, yes,” Shiro assures him. “Haven’t done anything, hm? I guess I’ll have to add a few strokes then. That’s too bad, but it’s what happens to little boys who lie. The both of you have been angling for this since the first time tonight I threatened you with it if you didn’t behave. You’ve both taken every chance you could to act like smartass little brats, and don’t think I haven’t noticed the looks you’ve been giving each other while you’ve been doing it, either. Would you like to admit it now, or will I have to make you?”  _ God, I could almost come listening to his voice, _ thinks Lance.

 

“Wha….er...what does that mean? Exactly. I mean, th...theoretically?” asks Lance breathlessly, trying very hard not to think about the fact that Keith is likely staring at his bare ass because  _ that _ thought is equally mortifying and arousing.

 

“It means you can be good for me, and admit you’ve been pushing for this, or you can keep lying and I’ll spank you until you do. And then start your real spanking,” says Shiro cheerfully. His hand rests, warm and gentle and threatening, on Lance’s bare bottom, waiting. Lance lets out a shuddery breath. Damn it, how did he get so weak so fast to Shiro calling him a  _ good _ boy _? _ Why does he want so badly for Shiro to think he is? He stops his pretense of a struggle (for the moment anyway) and just goes limp over his boyfriend’s lap (his  _ boyfriend! Oh god!! _ )

 

“I...I did,” he whispers, his cheeks and ears feeling like they’re on fire. “I mean, I was. I. Um. I wanted. To know what your hand feels like. I’m s…”

 

“No,” Shiro interrupts him before he can get the apology out, hearing the real note of guilt in it and cutting it off at the source. “No, baby. Oh, you’ll apologize while I’m spanking you, I’m pretty sure, but that had better be a part of the game. I’d have asked you both in all seriousness to rein it in if I’d really wanted to. This isn’t about real punishment. This is a game, and one we’ve all been wanting to play. Okay?”

 

Lance sighs softly, the tension that had begun to wind his shoulders up tight at the tiny niggle of guilt that Shiro might actually be disappointed in him running out like water. Shiro had known somehow, seen it and heard it. Tears sting the corners of his eyes at the swell of emotion that rises up in his throat. It’s one of the things he’s always hated about himself, that practically  _ any  _ kind of strong emotion tends to choke him up. Hunk has always told him, and now Shiro, that it’s because his heart is so big. Lance doesn’t mind being a person who cares. His mom has always said basically the same thing, that he’s got an amazing capacity for empathy, and that it’s a gift, but sometimes Lance wishes he wasn’t quite so cursed to wear his damn heart on his damn sleeve  _ all _ the time. Maybe it’s one of the (ok fine, there are several) reasons he’d always felt so fucking  _ compelled _ to poke and prod away at Keith all the time, because at first, Keith had almost seemed like a robot, not really caring about anyone. He knows so much better now. In fact, knowing what he does about Keith’s past, learning more all the time, and understanding why his new boyfriend had  _ needed _ to keep his emotions hidden away...if he thinks about it too much when he’s by himself, he’ll almost start to cry because of it. 

 

At least this is a little different, because Shiro and Keith don’t laugh at him because of it. In fact, for some reason, they seem to think it’s kind of hot. So he doesn’t try  _ as _ hard to fight it, or cover it up with bad jokes and defensive preemptive strikes against the most convenient target. He shakes his head to clear it of those kinds of thoughts, because Shiro’s now softly petting his ass and any second he’s going to….going to….he has a sudden flash of panic, remembering Keith explaining how easy it would be for Shiro to actually break the bones in his skinny ass with his hand. But this is  _ Shiro, _ and Shiro will never hurt him like th...aahtt. His train of thought derails entirely when a quick, sharp smack ignites a tingling heat in his right ass cheek, followed quickly by the left. It doesn’t  _ hurt _ exactly, but it definitely stings.

 

“Ah! Shiro!” 

 

Shiro chuckles softly and rubs away a bit of the prickling heat, his palm rough but still somehow soothing. His fingertips graze teasingly along the crack of Lance’s ass. He moans softly, arching up into the touch, but Shiro’s fingers are gone, followed almost instantly by two more stinging spanks, then two more….and more. Shiro pauses now and then to rub gently over his rapidly heating flesh, only to start spanking him again. It’s different from the wooden spoon. On one hand, he gets the feeling Shiro’s being more careful, bearing Keith’s warning in mind, but still the impact of his hand jolts through Lance’s body, and the sting drives deeper into his skin. He writhes in Shiro’s lap, kicking his feet when a harder smack lands. His erection grinds against the hard muscle of Shiro’s thigh when he struggles, even if he’s not doing it on purpose anymore, and the pleasurable friction is a dizzying counterpoint to the building sting in his backside. He can’t decide whether it hurts or feels amazing. Can’t decide whether he’s going to come or cry. Somewhere along the way he recovers his voice, and it changes  _ everything. _

 

“Ha! Ahh, Shiro! Sto….stop! I’m sorry! Oww! Please, Shiro, it hurts, I’ll stop, okay? No more, please, no more! I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Ahh! Huh-hurts!”

 

“It’s supposed to,” says Shiro pleasantly, and keeps spanking him, while Lance keeps begging for mercy and promising to be good. It’s  _ exactly _ the thing he’s fantasized about since he was 11 years old, helpless and pleading and punished like a bad little boy and oh  _ god _ , it’s heady. It’s thrilling. It hurts and it doesn’t. His ass is kind of on fire, so he reaches back to try to protect it with his hands. Shiro snarls a warning, but Lance ignores him, so Shiro asks Keith to grab his hands and hold them. Keith obeys with alacrity, snagging Lance’s wrists with depressing ease and pulling them out of the way despite the blue paladin’s best efforts to prevent them being pulled. Damn how strong Keith is anyway, except it’s exactly what Lance wants. With Shiro’s prosthetic hand pinning him down and Keith hands pinning his wrists, he’s completely at their mercy, and able to lose himself in sensation. If he had to hold himself still for it voluntarily, he thinks it might be too much, but this illusion of having no choice makes it perfect. He can yell and kick and beg and rut against Shiro like the filthy slut of a boy he’s never actually been. Finally his vision blurs with tears and his voice thickens with them, and his words choke on them, and right before it really does become more than he can handle, Shiro stops. Hands smooth over his hot skin, ruck up the back of his shirt and pet his back. Fingers card through his hair. When he stops trembling and panting, Shiro gently pulls his pants back up, at which he whines in disappointment, and helps him upright, then pulls him close and kisses him softly, his thumbs brushing a couple of tears away from his hot cheeks. He leans into the kiss and whines again, his dick aching in his pants. 

 

“All right?” asks Shiro, his stormy gray eyes searching Lance’s concernedly. Feeling a little dizzy because he can’t seem to decide between blissed out of his mind and horribly frustrated because he’s still so hard he feels like he could come in his damn pants if someone would just run one single finger down the too-tight fly of his jeans, he gives Shiro a crooked smile.

 

“‘M fine,” he says with a small pout. 

 

“You’re perfect,” smiles Shiro, cupping his face tenderly in his palm and kissing him again. 

 

“I could be more perfect,” hints Lance broadly. Shiro smiles and leans back.

 

“Maybe, but you’ll just have to wait a little longer. I still have your fellow conspirator here to deal with.” Lance glances over at Keith, who’s watching them with eyes gone black with lust and his face flushed. He’s still turned sideways on the sofa from helping Shiro hold Lance still, his now-empty hands resting on his thighs, palm up. Tentatively, he lifts one of them and reaches abortively towards the blue paladin, hesitates, his hand hovering. He almost pulls it back, but Lance reaches across Shiro and laces his fingers with Keith’s, who gives him a lopsided, small smile.

 

“You...you’re really okay?” he asks softly. Lance pouts a little harder, shifting in exaggerated discomfort where he sits (it’s not that he’s  _ not _ uncomfortable, because jesus fuck blue balls, it’s just that he’s not actually  _ hurt _ ).

 

“Of course I’m not _okay_ ,” he moans theatrically. “Leaving a guy hanging is _not_ _cool_. I’m blaming you.”

 

“What? Why the hell would you blame  _ me _ ? You  _ asked _ for it,” says Keith indignantly. Lance leans over to try to poke him, then winces and thinks better of it when it pinches his cramped hard-on.

 

“Easy,” he says. “It’s  _ way _ safer to blame you right now.” Keith rolls his eyes.

 

“You’re okay. Dork.”

 

“Yeah,” sighs Lance. “I am. Wait, can you actually die of blue balls? Because if you can, them I’m definitely in serious….”

 

“ _ No _ ,” says Shiro firmly. “And unless you’d like to find out how okay you are finding out how you like my belt...which I happen to be wearing right now...on top of what you’ve already gotten, I think you should stop talking now.” 

 

Lance thinks about it for a second or two. Keith can see him doing it. He knows  _ he _ wouldn’t even have to think about it, knows he’s going to want more, but he tell himself that there will be time for that, and tonight isn’t about pushing boundaries, but about feeling out their outer edges just a little bit, and aside from that, he does actually want to finish this list. But  _ fuck _ , he wants Shiro’s hands on him again. He lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding when Lance shuts his mouth and presses his lips together firmly, subsiding with a tiny shake of his head. Shiro turns his attention to Keith, who wonders briefly how bad it would mess up his coolness rating to just yank his own pants down and throw himself over Shiro’s lap. Pretty bad, he decides. He sort of wants to anyway. It feels like he’s been waiting a long-ass time. Not that it hadn’t been hot watching Shiro spank Lance….actually he thinks he’ll never get tired of that. Partly because it’s hot as hell, and partly because he can’t help loving watching someone be able to just...shut Lance the fuck up and strip him of all his ridiculous puns and jokes and turn him into something honest and real and...pretty damn hot, even if it’s a little embarrassing to admit it out loud.

 

Shiro raises an eyebrow and grins at him, cocking his head to the side with a considering look.

 

“Do you want to fight me too?” he asks, and his voice is the one that always just  _ does  _ it for Keith, low and husky and promising kinds of filth he’d only imagined from the older man for the past few years. The reality far outstrips his imagination. The Dominant Shiro is a hundred times hotter than he’d ever been capable of imagining. For a second he wonders what Shiro will do if he does fight him, wonders if he’ll use his belt, which makes Keith’s mouth water a little (okay, maybe more than a little), but despite his impatient nature, he doesn’t want to mess up what’s happening tonight, or freak Lance out too much. For all that he’s the kind of person who prefers to dive into the deep end of a pool as quickly as possible, he’s pretty sure Lance is more the kind of person who eases himself in (unless it’s an actual pool full of actual water, in which case Lance would always be the first one in, and the best swimmer of all of them, having grown up around water and it being his element). So Keith’s trying for baby steps.

 

“No,” he says, wishing he didn’t sound quite so breathless and eager.

 

“Oh? You gonna be good for me for once?” Shiro grins. Keith manages not to glare at Lance when he snorts dubiously.

 

“I...I  _ do _ want to fight you sometime….to see what happens. But....but there’s a time to push and a time to….not. Some asshole TA at the Garrison kept trying to teach me that. I wasn’t very good at listening to him, back then. Fighting real battles puts shit in perspective, y’know?”

 

Shiro beams at him so proudly it makes Keith’s ears burn with embarrassment, that his smile could fill Keith with this ridiculous, bubbling happiness inside, but he’s also trying not to doubt the happiness, and that it’s okay for him to let himself feel it.

 

“All right then,” says Shiro, wisely not making a big deal of it, “let’s see how good you can be. Over my lap, and push your pants down.”

 

Blushing hotly, mentally cursing his fair skin for about the millionth time, Keith crawls forward and settles himself awkwardly over Shiro’s strong thighs. He keeps his eyes down so he won’t have to see if Lance is laughing at him or not. It’s a bit of a struggle to lift his hips and unfasten his pants so he can shove his pants and underwear down to his knees (they both catch on his already  _ very _ hard dick in the process, making him hiss through his teeth), but he manages. As he’s trying to fold his arms so he can hide his face in them, Lance deftly grabs his hands and twines his fingers with Keith’s. This surprises him into looking up, where he finds Lance on his knees, squatting on the cushion next to Shiro. The expression on his face is far from laughter. He looks...well, he looks horny as hell, but also intent and stubborn and awkward and shy all at the same time.

 

“Y...you did it for me. And it...helped,” he mutters, red-faced and defensive. It’s awfully cute. Keith opens his mouth to tell the other paladin that he doesn’t need it, but that look on Lance’s face stops him. Keith knows he wants this. Has known it for years. Lance though, he’s struggling a little with the difference between jerk-off fantasies and reality, so it’s harder for him to just accept all of this. Keith squeezes his hands a little and manages what he hopes is a smile and not some alarming baring of his teeth.

 

“Thanks,” he says quietly. “Don’t let go, okay?”

 

“I won’t.”

 

Too focused on Lance, the red paladin is taken by surprise by the gentle brush of Shiro’s hand over his bared ass. He shivers and gasps softly at the touch.

 

“Anything to say before I start?” asks Shiro, and Keith can hear the smile in his voice. There are a lot of things Keith would probably love to say, but most of them escape him. Eloquence has never been his strong point. He goes for reckless honesty, which has more often than not gotten him in more trouble than it has out of it, but Shiro knows him.

 

“I’m not sorry,” he pants, arching his hips up into Shiro’s hand. “I want you to. Shiro. Can you… I don’t....ngh. Less warmup? I...please?”

 

“Okay, babe. But don’t forget that you asked for it,” Shiro replies, his voice even deeper and huskier than before.

 

The first smack takes Keith’s breath away for a few seconds. His hips grind against Shiro’s thigh with the force of it, rubbing his naked cock hard against his lover’s thigh. He finds his voice with the second, moaning helplessly at the sharp flare of pain and the taunting friction against his erection. His hands clench reflexively in Lance’s. Shiro starts slow, but each blow rocks him, heat searing into his flesh, driving his hips down hard. He squirms a little, but not to get away, only to revel in the pure sensation of the sting on his ass and the rough fabric of Shiro’s pants on his throbbing prick. He’s probably making a mess of the black paladin’s trousers, because he can feel his own slick against his belly, but he can’t bring himself to care. Altean laundry is an amazing thing. On Earth, laundry systems can have your clothes clean and dry in less than half and hour, but on the Castle ship, it takes less than five minutes. Even their skin-tight space suits that they wear under their armor, which come back from missions drenched with bodily fluids and all kinds of other filth, but are returned to them each time as pristine as when they were first made. 

 

Unlike the first time, when he’d kept thinking it might be the one and only time he’d get to feel Shiro’s hand on him that way...the way he’d always dreamed but never really believed, Keith lets himself just revel in it. Shiro’s hand is big and strong. It covers most of his ass with every stinging spank. He struggles to spread his legs a little, though it’s not much when they’re trapped at the knees by his jeans. He tries to hold back his sounds, not  _ exactly _ because they’re embarrassing (though that’s a small part of it), but because he doesn’t want Shiro to worry that he’s hurting him too much. Even so, every sharp, burning slap drives a small gasp or whimper from between his closed lips. Shiro stops suddenly. Keith opens his mouth to protest, and so is unable to muffle his soft cry when powerful fingers twist in his hair and haul his head back.

 

“Don’t you dare try to hide what this makes you feel from me,” growls Shiro in his ear. “I’m trusting you to  _ tell _ me if it’s too much. You can trust me enough to show me how it makes you feel.”

 

“Yuh...yes Sir,” pants Keith, keeping his lashes lowered so he won’t see Lance’s face. But of course he does anyway. Far from looking shocked, or repulsed, or mocking or any of the other things he might have worried he’d see, Lance is staring at him with his lips parted, his bright cerulean blue eyes dark, his cheeks flagged with color.

 

“Fuck, you’re pretty,” he whispers.

 

“No touching,” snaps Shiro, turning his head at the blue paladin’s words and catching him in the act of pulling one hand free from Keith’s to inch towards his own crotch. Lance eeps softly in alarm and quickly grabs Keith’s hand again, looking sheepish.

 

“Shiro, please,” pants Keith. 

 

“Don’t worry ,I’m not done with you yet,” purrs Shiro. He lets go of Keith’s hair, which is almost a shame, until he starts spanking again. It’s hard to let go, lying there so completely vulnerable over Shiro’s lap like a naughty little boy, exposed to both of them and the center of attention, but he tries. It helps that the blows rain down harder and faster, pulling the whimpers and soft cries from his lips. Oh god, the burn is so sweet, so perfect. It’s exactly as good as he’d dreamed it would be. He feels helpless. Owned. His thighs quiver when Shiro slaps him there, the sensitive skin flaring with heat under the older man’s hand. Tears gather at the corners of his eyes, but it isn’t pain that brings them. Keith has taken far worse beatings than this without a single sound. It’s emotion, plain and simple. Feelings he’s kept hidden for too many years. Pure joy, something he’s only ever felt behind Red’s controls, and he’ll probably never tell anyone that he’s had to dash away more than a few tears of happiness to keep his vision clear while he’s flying too, just to keep from crashing, with Red’s deep purr of understanding vibrating his bones. He sobs a little when Shiro spanks him faster and harder, because it’s so fucking perfect, even if it also hurts. He rocks against Shiro’s thigh, lifting to meet each blazing stroke, which then drives his hips down hard against Shiro’s leg. Pleasure tightens his belly and spine. Fuck. Fuck, he’s going to come in a minute. He’s….

 

He groans in frustration when Shiro stops, his fingertips infinitely gentle as they stroke and pet his hot skin. Shiro chuckles, kind and heartless.

 

“If I didn’t let Lance come from this, why would you think I’d let you either?”

 

“Shiro,” whines Keith.

 

“You okay, babe?”

 

“Fine,” sighs Keith, resigning himself to frustration, but hoping Shiro plans to do something about it before the night is over. He hikes his pants back up, wincing a little as rough denim scrapes over his ass, then lets Shiro help him upright even though he doesn’t need it. Then again, maybe he does. The room spins a little, and his head feels light and fuzzy with where Shiro’s taken him. He leans against the bigger man for a minute, while Shiro cards his fingers through his hair and tips his chin up for a far-too-chaste kiss.

 

“Now, do you two think you can behave yourselves long enough to get through this list?” asks the oldest paladin sternly, but his grey eyes sparkle silver. Lance and Keith exchange a calculating look once again. Shiro leans back. “Because you can both go to bed in your own rooms with orders not to touch yourselves if you can’t” He smiles to himself with satisfaction at their twin looks of dismay. Maybe he can get the hang of this Dominant thing after all. Sometimes, just like with leading a team, it’s all about finding the right motivation. They don’t have to know his own dick is aching like a bruise in his pants and that it’s probably an empty threat. They promise meekly, and he picks his datapad back up, tapping the screen to wake it up.

 

The next item on the list is “Collars.” Out of the corners of his eyes, Shiro notices that Keith goes very still, but Lance cocks his head to the side, looking dubious.

 

“What, like a dog or something?” he asks

 

“Some people are really into pet play, where one person acts like an animal to whatever level everybody agrees on. I’ve read about it being stuff from just wearing a collar and leash and sitting on the floor to eat, all the way up to furry ears and buttplugs with tails attached and sometimes even mitts for your hands that look like paws and kneepads cause you have to crawl the whole time and you’re not allowed to talk,” offers Keith, but Shiro can tell he’s thinking of something more. Lance looks fascinated and embarrassed and horrified all at the same time, which makes Shiro think there may be something about this pet play thing that appeals to the blue paladin, but he’s also known Lance long enough to recognize that embarrassment is currently the overriding emotion, so it’s probably not the time yet to push him to admit it. He doesn’t know whether that would appeal to him or not, and treating someone like an animal could definitely be one of those things that brings back some nasty memories, but at least picturing Lance in fuzzy ears and a fluffy tail on his hands and knees doesn’t bring any flashes of panic, so he figures maybe they can talk about it later. The look on Keith’s face calls for his attention more urgently right now anyway.

 

“There’s more, isn’t there?” he asks.

 

Keith ducks his head and stares at the word on his own tablet.

 

“It’s...I mean, it  _ is _ true that plenty of people wear collars for fun. Pet play’s one thing. They can be part of bondage, or even breath play. Or just leather wear.”

 

“Keith,” says Shiro gently.

 

“When a sub is  _ collared _ ….when their Dominant gives them their collar to wear….and it can be one that looks like a leather dog collar or it can just be….like, a necklace, or something else like that. Whatever they choose. That’s...it’s a commitment,” mumbles Keith, his cheeks and ears turning red.

 

“Like when couples exchanged class rings in high school!” exclaims Lance. Keit glances at him, but then looks back down with a small shake of his head

 

“It’s more than that,” he says fiercely, then sighs. “Okay, for some people it’s like that. But for other people it’s more like. Like a. Well, it just means more.”

 

“You mean like a  _ wedding _ ring?” squeaks Lance, his eyes wide. Keith’s face blushes even darker.

 

“It’s. It means you belong to each other, McClain. Geez.,” he mutters.

 

“Oh….okay.” And simple as that, Lance marks “curious” by the collar entry. Shiro lowers his head to hide his smile at the way Keith’s shoulders sag with relief, and they both follow suit. It’s not time for something like that. Not yet. But it’s obvious that this is something that’s important to Keith, and Shiro’s honest enough with himself to admit that he wants it too. Wants something that marks both of them as  _ his _ . Because he’s definitely keeping them. At least as long as they’ll let him.

 

“Crawling” doesn’t seem to be a problem for anybody, but doesn’t spark any obvious excitement either. Shiro looks at the next listing and feels his skin go cold. “Cutting: deliberately cutting the skin.” Memories flash through his mind. Of himself in the arena, and the smell of blood and dirt and the delighted roars of the crowd. Of being strapped down to a table, unable to move, the witch Haggar’s grinning face above him. A blade punching into flesh….

 

Keith’s hand covers his. Gently, he takes the stylus from Shiro’s nerveless fingers. Calmly, he marks the “Not Applicable” box, then hands the slender little instrument back to Shiro.

 

“It’s okay,” he says softly. “I think we all get enough scars kicking Galra ass. And we’ll keep doing it, Takashi. We’ll kick Zarkon’s ass too. We’ll burn all their arenas to the ground.”

 

“Yeah,” echoes Lance staunchly. “And we’ll free every prisoner, and find Pidge’s family too!”

 

“Thank you,” whispers Shiro. He shoves at the flashes of memory. This is not the place for them. Clearing his throat, he looks down at the next listing. The expression on Lance’s face at “Anal Dilation” is so comical it makes him laugh. They decide actual sex is adventurous enough for them at this point in time. “Discipline,” on the other hand, makes both younger paladins squirm in a way Shiro’s coming to find almost impossibly adorable. At the same time, it gives him a little twinge of discomfort too.

 

“I think we ought to talk about this one a little, guys.”

 

“What’s wrong?” It almost makes him laugh again that they ask at almost exactly the same time. Lance, with his vast capacity for empathy, has obviously sensed his slight discomfort. So has Keith, though in his case it’s because he knows Shiro so well. Most of the time other people’s feelings leave Keith confused and often baffled.

 

“Okay look, I really liked how what we did that first night turned out, but….well, I hated seeing the two of you fight. I have to keep being the leader of this team, and this thing….I’m not talking about how I feel about you guys. I’m talking about the….kinky stuff, yeah? I get that it matters. It matters to be too, but ultimately  _ most _ of it is a game. And it  _ can’t _ get in the way of this fight. I’ve got to be able to put the team first, and be fair. To everyone. There’s a pretty big difference in punishment that’s part of a game and punishment that’s real. And I guess it makes me feel a little uncomfortable, because I’m afraid it’d be all to easy for me to want to bust both your butts for you if you do something that puts you or the team in danger, but at the same time I’m  _ not _ gonna do that to Hunk or Pidge, and that’s not really fair. It seems like a pretty fine line to walk, and also like the kind of thing that you could start to resent one day.”

 

“I wouldn’t,” says Keith instantly. Shiro believes him. Keith doesn’t say things he doesn’t mean when he’s not angry. “Look, I know sometimes in the. Um. Heat of battle? I can be impulsive. And I know I’ve done some stupid stuff. If you can explain to me why it was stupid and I agree with you, then I’m not gonna ever hold it against you if you think I deserve to be punished for it. I feel that way about….things….all the time. In battle or not. I trust your judgment, Shiro. And I trust you to listen to me if I don’t agree with you.”

 

“Wow, everybody hang onto something, cause I’m about to set off another earthquake here,” says Lance. “I agree with mullet head again. That’s like, twice in a week. Maybe more. Geez.” He shakes his head in wonder. “I must’ve breathed in some weird alien brain altering pollen on the last planet we visited!” 

 

Shiro gives him a quelling look, but Lance just grins and sticks out his tongue at Keith with a wink. Keith rolls his eyes and facepalms, muttering,

 

“I think you just breathed in brain  _ numbing _ pollen sometime around the time you were born.”

 

“Okay, enough. How about this then? Since you guys both seem to agree you’re willing to include this discipline thing in this relationship, then...any time it’s  _ not _ a game, I’m going to promise you that I’ll never lay a hand on you that way unless you agree it’s fair. And never when I’m angry. That sound okay?”

 

“Yeah,” says Keith softly, and Lance gives him his characteristic thumbs-up finger gun salute. Shiro thinks it’s a compromise he can live with, as well as one with the least potential for resentment and hurt feelings. 

 

Nobody has a particular interest in drinking blood or urine, but semen is marked universally essential to Lance’s vast hilarity.

 

“Shiro,” he says solemnly, once he manages to stop laughing, placing a hand on the bigger man’s shoulder, “your come is essential to our survival. Congratulations.” 

 

It takes a few minutes before they can move on to the next listing. 

 

“Electricity” is another one Shiro crosses off. He can’t remember why, but the thought of it makes his skin crawl. “Enemas” don’t hold any appeal to anybody, but since they’re rendered unnecessary by certain Altean technologies that none of them understand but are grateful for, it’s a moot point. They agree that “Exhibitionism” isn’t something they’re going to explore under their current circumstances because that’s not something they’d want to do to their friends and teammates, but that if anybody’s curious about it, they’ll wait until they’re somewhere safe and won’t scar anybody for life. 

 

In a somewhat surprising reversal of previous preferences, Lance is a little curious about face slapping, but Keith marks it as a soft limit. Shiro doesn’t ask him to explain. He’s already heard some of the stories.

 

“I’m willing to give it a try if you want, but I’m never going to hit you in the face hard enough to leave a mark. Not even if you end up liking it,” Shiro tells Lance firmly. “First of all, it’s not something I’d like to have to explain to Allura, and second, I’m a lot stronger now than I used to be, and even though it was a whole year, sometimes I’m still not really used to it. Okay?”

 

“No worries, El Capitain of mine. I put in a lot of hours to keep this face looking this good. I don’t want you to mess it up either,” Lance replies airily. 

 

“Anal Fisting” makes both boys turn a little green, looking at Shiro’s hands with something akin to horror.

 

“People  _ do _ that?” asks Lance in a loud stage whisper.

 

“I guess so,” says Keith uncomfortably. “I mean, it’s on this list and some other ones I found. I just….couldn’t ever bring myself to look for any pictures.”

 

“Wise choice, my man. Wise choice.”

 

“I mean, I’m not judging anybody;s thing, but I just….”

 

“Shiro’s dick is big enough to qualify as far as I’m concerned,” Lance muses. Shiro feels his face heat up a little. It’s not like he’s ever thought he was that much more endowed than the average guy, although admittedly, until recently he hasn’t paid a lot of attention to other guys’ junk in any kind of voluntary way. He decides now is not the time to tell Lance about some of the alien races he’s started to remember. Privacy and being a slave on a prison ship or arena prison aren’t things that go hand in hand.

 

They’re a little limited in some of the food categories simply due to the limitation in their choices, but neither Lance or Keith minds the idea of having food chosen for them or eating it off each other’s bodies, or feeding each other or being fed by hand. Shiro grins wickedly at Lance when he reads the “Gags” listing, making the blue paladin shift in his seat and blush. There are a startling array of types of gags, but that brings them back to the availability thing again, so they just decide to work with what they can improvise unless and until someone figures out the Castle’s replication process, or they happen upon a planet that shares similar practices. 

 

They agree unanimously and emphatically that being given away  to someone else is  _ not _ something they want to explore. Shiro realizes again that he’s going to have to tell them certain things pretty soon, but he doesn’t think it’s a bad idea to give this new relationship a little more time to settle in. Not to mention he really wouldn’t put it past Keith to take it upon himself to head off on his own to try to single-handedly blow up as many prison ships as he can find, or to let his rage overtake his good sense in battle when they’re encountered. He won’t be responsible for that.

 

Hand jobs are a definite yes, while forced Heterosexuality is a solid no.

 

“I mean, even if I’m bi, who the heck are you gonna force me to have sex with? Pidge is like one of my sisters, and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t survive Allura,” says Lance, making Keith snort with humor.

 

Forced Homosexuality seems a little pointless, and the voluntary kind seems more than a little obvious. “Humiliation,” both private and public is next. 

 

“I don’t think I can be comfortable with this one at this point, guys. I mean, there’s a difference when someone gets a little embarrassed by something we do or talk about, but...I’m too familiar with what it feels like to have your dignity taken away from you. I know there’s a difference when it’s pretend, so...can we just say that I’m a work in progress on separating the two, and if either one of you is interested in this, I’ll just….let you know when I get there,” says Shiro. 

 

“It’s fine. It’s not one of my things anyway. I’m afraid it would just piss me off,” says Keith.

 

“Yeah, no worries. I...I mean I liked it when you. Um. Said some dirty stuff about me. In the moment? But that’s about as far as I’d wanna go with it,” mutters Lance. 

 

“Don’t worry,” says Shiro, brushing his hand through the blue paladin’s soft brown hair. “I never want to make you feel bad. This stuff is supposed to make us all feel good. That’s what you deserve. Both of you.”

 

“You too, y’know,” Keith says fiercely. Shiro smiles at him.

 

“When I have this much pretty to play with, how could it not?”

 

“I’m not pretty,” mutters Keith, his ears turning red.

 

“Are you  _ kidding _ ?” Lance bursts out incredulously.

 

“No?” says Keith, looking over at him in genuine confusion.

 

“Oh my god! Are you fucking kidding me right now? How can you seriously not know how fucking beautiful you are?” Keith looks legitimately confused.

 

“You make fun of my hair,” he protests defensively.

 

“Well  _ yeah _ . Cause I spend ages and use like four different products on mine to get it to be this soft and shiny. What do you use on yours?”

 

“Um. Soap?” wonders Keith, looking mystified.

 

“I rest my case!” cries Lance, throwing up his hands. “I make fun of your hair because not only are you good at everyfuckingthing, but you’re practically the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my life and you don’t even try and it’s so not fair!” Keith blinks at him.

 

“No, that’s….you’re prettier than I am….”

 

“Ch’yeah right,” scoffs Lance.

 

“Hey,” interrupts Shiro before they can devolve into a ridiculous argument about which one of them is more attractive. “You’re both gorgeous. Seriously. I’ve had the hardest time not just staring at both of you all the time.”

 

“Says the most perfect human being in the Universe,” mutters Lance, very red in the face, but looking both pleased and flustered.

 

“I...what?” Shiro stares at him. 

 

“Shiro, please,” scoffs Keith. “Every girl at the Garrison and probably half the guys wanted to jump on your dick.:

 

:Gospel, my man,” agrees Lance.

 

“First or all, you’re exaggerating, and second, that was before I became this….this…”

 

“Shiro, stop. You’re even more beautiful now than you were before. Your hair is way cooler. Your arm is just a part of you, like the other one, except more badass cause you can blow shit up with it and it’s so strong you can throw us around like rag dolls and that’s  _ hot. _ And don’t even try to bring up your scars, because I love them,” snarls Keith almost angrily.

 

“That’s nice of you to say, but I…”

 

“Shut. Up. I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it. I love them because every single one of them is proof that you’re still here and you’re still alive and you  _ came back _ .”

 

“He’s right,” pipes up Lance. “Plus scars are cool. They make you look even more badass than you already are.”

 

Shiro’s throat tightens with emotion, because he can’t deny the absolute sincerity in their eyes. He clears his throat.

 

“Okay. Um. We’re getting off track again. I’m just going to make an executive decision that we’re all very pretty and that’s the end of it. Argue with me,” he adds at the end in a low purr when Lance opens his mouth, “and see what it gets you. It  _ won’t _ be nearly as much fun as your last spanking, little boy.” Lance gulps and closes his mouth with a snap.

 

They cross off “Including Others” for several obvious reasons. Leashes are marked “curious”, while “Licking” is unanimously essential. “Masturbation,” both forced and voluntary are given approval, as are “Nipple Clamps” and “Nipple Play.” “Voluntary Nudity” is kind of a given, and the forced variety appeals to all of them as well.

 

“Shiro ordering me to strip or tearing my clothes off? I’m so down,” Lance sighs dreamily. Keith laughs at him, but has to agree. Since they’ve already touched a little on Orgasm Control and Denial, not a lot of discussion is required. “Pain,” is another unanimous item, though Keith unhesitatingly marks yes on the “Heavy” pain line, which makes Lance hesitate.

 

“We’ll take it slow,” Shiro assures him. “It’s totally okay that Keith knows a little more about what he wants at this point than you and I do.” He includes himself on purpose, both because it’s true, and because it makes Lance relax. The last thing he wants is the two pilots’ competitive natures to push Lance into taking more than he’s ready for or will be able to enjoy. “We don’t know yet what your limits are going to be. And neither one of you ever have to worry about me ever pushing you past them. As long as you’re honest about using your safewords, you never have to worry about that. But I mean it, both of you. If I find out you needed to slow things down and didn’t, I won’t touch you for a month. Or whatever the Altean word for that is.”

 

“I promise,” says Keith quickly, surreptitiously glancing at the blue paladin from under his lashes, after which Lance readily agrees as well.

 

“What’s Phone Sex?” asks Lance when Shiro gets to the next one.

 

“It’s what they used to communicate over distances before comm units,” says Shiro. “You did  _ take _ Earth History didn’t you?” he teases gently.

 

“Well  _ yeah _ ,” but it was one of those core classes you just had to take before you could get to the good stuff. I passed all those boring ones, but honestly it was mostly thanks to Hunk. I didn’t start to make really good grades until I got to start taking the classes that were gonna get me closer to space.”

 

“You know, they teach all of those classes because it’s important to know that stuff,” chides Shiro gently. Lance raises his eyebrows and looks over at the big observation window on the far side of the room.

 

“Yep. Totally helping me kick Galra ass, knowing about phones and clothespins,” he quips. Shiro sighs. Lance ignores him and tilts his head back, looking contemplative.

 

“So we could like, open secure channels in our Lions and talk dirty to each other where nobody else can hear us?”

 

“We are  _ not _ going to be doing that,” says Shiro firmly. Lance smiles. It’s not particularly reassuring.

 

Keith marks “Rape Fantasy” as a soft limit very quickly. Lance’s eyes glance back and forth between both of them. His hand hesitates for a second, then he marks it at a low level of interest. Shiro has a strong sense that he’s not being truthful, but he recalls the look of horrified sympathy on the young man’s face on their first night together, and can see him putting two and two together when he looks at Keith. It’s in moments like these that it’s hard to believe that most people assume Lance to be superficial and air-headed. He’s quickly coming to learn that the young man’s absurd jokes and flippant attitude mask an enormous heart and a much more thoughtful mind than most people give him credit for. In fact, even though all of them would probably unanimously agree that Hunk is the nicest of all of them, he very strongly suspects that Lance is actually the one who represents the heart of their team.

 

“Recordings” of various types make Lance’s ears perk up.

 

“Oh hey, we should totally do that sometime! I mean, not so we could show it to anybody or anything. Just for us.”

 

“You want to watch yourself getting fucked, huh?” says Keith, teasing him a little. Lance makes a face at him.

 

“Maybe I want to watch  _ you _ getting fucked,” he fires back, then closes his mouth abruptly and turns very red.

 

“Well, it doesn’t matter to me. We can if you want to.” Keith shrugs. “Shiro?”

 

“If we do, you have to promise to be really careful with whatever device you store it on. And  _ not _ the main console in your room!” Shiro thinks about Pidge and closes his eyes briefly in horrified discomfort, trying very hard not to think about his roommate. Her brother. “Remember how the Princess was worried we’d been hacked that one time?”

 

“Psh, yeah, no worries. Datapad only, and I’ll get a fresh one, not the one I carry around with me or anything. Promise,” says Lance. Shiro sighs again.

 

“Then I’ll think about it.”

 

“Cool!”

 

“Roleplay” is another listing that has a lot of different listings that run the gamut from pretending to be an animal like Keith had described during the collar discussion to scenarios enacting things like kidnapping, teacher and student, prisoner and guard, pretending one person is much younger than they really are, which Keith says is called Ageplay, or, if it’s something you want to do for extended periods, being Little.  There are varying, but still unanimous, levels of interest in at least some kinds of roleplaying. When Lance starts to list increasingly outrageous and silly scenarios, Shiro decides to nip this particular line of discussion in the bud before it gets out of control.

 

“Lance?”

 

“...Or we could….oh. Yes, Shiro?”

 

“Did you have any interest in somebody in this room doing something about that hard-on you’ve been squirming about since I spanked you almost an hour ago sometime tonight?”

 

“Oh my god,  _ yeah _ .”

 

“Stop. Talking.”

 

“Noted,” says Lance, and, miraculously, he does. Keith’s mouth falls open for a second, then quirks up on one side.

 

“Wow. It’s almost like magic. And I thought the only way to shut you up was to give you something else to do with that mouth,” he teases. Lance glares at him without heat.

 

“Oh yeah, pretty boy? I’ll show you what I can do with my mouth. Then I bet I can make  _ you _ the loud one.”

 

“Oh yeah? I’d like to see you try!”

 

“Hm. So would I,” says Shiro, which pretty much wraps the argument the hell up right there.

 

“Sensation Play” covers everything from hot wax to ice, deprivation, actual fire (Keith informs him he has a couple of tutorials downloaded and that it’s safer than it sounds if you do it the right way), hair pulling and suction, to scratching, tickling and teasing. 

 

“Yeah, can we just try all of these?” asks Lance, looking extremely interested. Shiro laughs.

 

“Sure we can. You do realize it’s probably going to take us like a year or more to be able to try all of this stuff?”

 

“I don’t care,” says Keith softly. “We’re going to stop Zarkon, and then….then we can take all the time in the world. In the  _ Universe _ . For….forever. If. I mean. If you meant that.” He glares down at his tablet and suddenly won’t look at them.

 

“Keith,” says Shiro just as softly, reaching over slowly so as not to spook his edgier lover. His fingertips gently tip Keith’s chin up so he can look him in the eye. “Have we met? I don’t say things I don’t mean, not to the people I care about.”

 

“Yeah, I’m not going anywhere either. I mean, you guys gotta come home and meet my family! My mom always said she was afraid nobody was ever gonna get to see what a good catch I was cause I was so bad at flirting that I’d always scare everybody away. Boy, is she gonna be surprised!” He smiles smugly. Keith blanches in terror.

 

“You….you want  _ me _ to meet your  _ family _ ?” he asks in a strained whisper.

 

“Well, duh. You’re my boyfriend, aren’t you? It’s like, required. You got no choice, flyboy. Plus my mom’s like an amazing cook, and so it abuelita. They’re probably gonna wanna adopt you when they find out how long you’ve been alone though, fair warning.”

 

“But...but we. Shiro and me. We’re guys. And there’s  _ two _ of us. Aren’t they gonna...I mean, won’t that be a problem?” he stammers, his dark blue eyes wide with panic.

 

“What? My family? No way. My mom’s always said most of the time love chooses  _ you _ .” Lance blushes when he realizes what he’s said, but he firms his chin and forges on. “Anyway, my oldest sister’s gay, and I have another one who’s bi like me, which my mom already knew before I went away to the Garrison anyway.” 

 

“How...how can she….” Lance’s mobile face softens.

 

“Look, you’ve gotten the short end of the stick more times than anybody deserves to, and I guess I’m pretty sure you’ve had a lot of people be assholes to you when they found out you weren’t straight. But you’ll just have to get used to it. When we get home, you won’t just have me and Shiro, you’ll have my family too. They’re gonna love you guys.”

 

“That might be a really good thing,” says Shiro with a sigh, feeling a small pang of sadness. But it’s buried under of flare of rebellious anger. “Most of my family….well, saying they won’t approve is probably an understatement. My mother might get over it if we give her long enough, but they’ve been expecting me to find an acceptable wife and settle down after my illustrious military career. They’re in for one hell of a surprise if we ever see them, but I don’t care.”

 

“Shiro, are you sure?” asks Keith, looking worried. “I mean, you’ve worked your whole life to make your family proud. I...I really don’t mind pretending we’re just friends around them.”

 

“Yeah,” agrees Lance. “It’s no big deal. We can just let our freak flags fly when we visit my family.”

 

“No,” says Shiro firmly. “I lived my entire life for my family, doing everything they expected of me, being everything they expected me to be. I got good grades and my professors liked me and other students wanted to be around me, but I never really enjoyed any of it. I didn’t do anything  _ fun _ . And out of all those tons of people you’d see me hanging out with all the time, I only felt like I had two real friends. Keith, and then Matt. Nothing I ever did really felt real until Kerberos. For the first time, I was excited about something. I was doing something no one else had ever done, going farther than anyone had ever been, and I thought it was so big. Now I know how insignificant it was. Ice samples? When there’s a being like Zarkon taking over planet after planet, snuffing out countless lives and enslaving countless others? What we’re doing  _ now _ , this is something that matters. When we started, I was prepared to die for it, because I know better than all  of you guys what awaits us if we fail. Hell, I wasn’t just prepared for it, I expected it. And I was okay with it. But not now. Now I’ve found something real, when all my life before I was living someone else’s life, someone else’s expectations. So if we do win, if we ever make it back to Earth, I want you both by my side. I won’t hide it, or pretend it’s something else, or lie about it. Zarkon and his witch tried to turn me into something that wasn’t a human being anymore, and he almost did it. When I’m with you guys, I know who I am, and I feel more alive than I ever have in my entire life. I won’t be the Shirogane family poster boy for heritage and tradition anymore. Just me. That sounds pretty good.”

 

“It’s not  _ if _ , Shiro, oh fearless leader,  _ Sir _ ,” saya Lance, nudging him with his shoulder. “It’s when. Cause in case you forgot, we’re the one thing that fucker’s scared of in the entire Universe. Us and our lions, and Voltron, we’re gonna shove his defeat up his ass on a silver platter, you bet your ass. And  _ when _ we go home, well, if it’s what you want, I’ll walk down the street an’ up to your family’s door on a damn leash and tell all the reporters who’re gonna wanna interview us, cause you know we’re gonna be heroes, yeah? I’ll tell anybody who asks that it’s cause I’m yours. And then we’ll go have abuelita’s churros.”

 

Keith stares at his fellow paladin with his mouth hanging open for a split second, looking a little as though Lance has hit him in the head with his bayard. It isn’t that he’s been doubting that Lance is into this, all the way. Nobody could fake the way he’d acted on their first night together. But Lance would be at the top of Keith list among the five of them on this ship (not counting Coran and Allura because they’re aliens and he doesn’t know enough about Altean culture to predict anything like this about them), of people who’d care the most what other people’d think about them. His showboating and bragging and always trying to one-up Keith have always made him think so anyway. But in that one moment, he thinks maybe he gets the insecurity Lance’s antics have been masking, and it’s not so different from the one thing he’s always wanted. Lance isn’t afraid of being ridiculed or shunned by his peer group, he’s afraid of not being needed, being wanted. And Keith, since he got old enough to understand not having parents anymore and that adoption was a thing but that it didn’t seem that it was ever going to happen to him, has wanted only one thing too. To belong to someone. And as his awareness of himself as a sexual being began to develop and his fantasies began to take form, those desires pretty easily had transferred over into wanting to belong to a lover. Maybe he’s just been able to be more honest with himself about exactly what it was that he wanted. Especially once he’d realized it was Shiro. 

 

He gets up on his knees an leans over Shiro, reaching out, his hand a flash of the speed that has helped keep him alive. He grabs Lance by the front of his shirt and yanks the startled boy close, kissing him hard and a little messy. His mouth curves into a smirk against Lance’s startled squawk.

 

“Damn straight,” he murmurs.  _ Then _ he glances at Shiro out of the corners of his eyes. “So, wanna finish this list and either lock the door or go back to your room?” He lets go of Lance, who looks a little dazed, and sits back down.

 

“Definitely,” says Shiro. 

 

“Yeah,” agrees Lance a bit hoarsely.

 

After Sensation Play comes “Serving.”

 

“Huh. Wow, there are a lot more of these than I’d ever have been able to dream up on my own,” muses Shiro. “I mean, getting ordered around a little, yeah. But serving as art?”

 

Lance looks over the array of options.

 

“I think I’m glad you don’t smoke, Shiro. I don’t think I’d like being an ashtray very much. No offense, but that just sounds gross.”

 

“Also, I don’t know how to dance, and I’d get too bored being a footrest or something and just end up in trouble,” agrees Keith. He wants to do things for Shiro. Make him happy. Make him  _ proud. _ But some of the service categories make his skin feel twitchy.

 

“That’s...really okay. I’m pretty sure I’d just feel weird posing you guys as statues or making you clean my room for me. Let’s just say we can stick to the stuff like following a few orders, especially in bed. That good with you?” asks Shiro. They exclude all the ones except “Following Orders” and “Sexual” in the Service listing and call that one done. The next listing is pretty easy.

 

“Sex,” reads Shiro.

 

“Yes please,” says Lance.

 

“Yeah well,” Keith smirks, “maybe you should let him get through the whole category before giving blanket approval.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Obviously we’ll just mark vaginal sex and cunnilingus as Not Applicable,” Shiro continues. “So that leaves….Anal sex…”

 

Keith and Lance simultaneously mark this as “Essential.” Shiro chuckles and does the same, then continues.

 

“Denial…” Shiro grins when Lance pouts. “Don’t worry, baby, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t mean permanently. More like a teasing kind of thing.”

 

“Oh...well, I…”

 

“You like it,” whispers Keith, also grinning. “It makes you even harder thinking about being tied up or held down and not getting fucked until you’re begging for it.” Lance opens his mouth to argue, but Shiro raises an eyebrow. He flushes, but his hand doesn’t hesitate when uses his stylus to tap one of the highest rankings. “Hey, look, Lance. Just...don’t worry about it, yeah?” And he marks the same thing on his own tablet.

 

“Oh  _ really _ ?” purrs Shiro, interest and heat sparking off each other in his belly. It’s hard not to get lost in imagining hot-blooded, impatient, spitfire Keith….naked and desperate for him, with no choice but to wait, touching him exploring that tight, lean, tautly muscled body at his leisure, teasing him until Keith’s desire outweighs his pride. Keith’s cheeks flush a very appealing pink color as he recognizes the look on Shiro’s face for what it is. 

 

“Well,” he mutters, “not very often. But maybe every now and then. I know I’m not very patient. Used to make me crazy, that mantra of yours. But I also...at night sometimes. I’d think about you. Holding me down and saying it. ‘Patience yields focus,’ and making me wait for it until you were damn good and ready. So….yeah.”

 

“I’ll definitely remember that,” grins Shiro before turning his attention back to the list. “Okay, let’s see. Next is Fellatio. I’d say that one’s also essential, yes?”

 

It certainly is.

 

“....And then we have Group sex. Hm. I’m going to say definitely to that one as long as there are only the three of us in that group, and no thanks at this point to anything more than that. I don’t have any interest in sharing you with anyone but each other.”

 

“Works for me,” says Lance.

 

“Yeah,” agrees Keith.

 

“Good. Okay, ‘Double Penetration’ says it’s ‘sexual intercourse in which two orifices are used.’ Pretty sure we already know that one works for us.”

 

“Well, yeah,” says Keith slowly. “But there’s another definition too.”

 

“Oh?”

 

“Yeah….it’s...taking two dicks up your ass at the same time.”

 

“I think I might die,” gasps Lance. “I’m pretty sure Shiro’s the most I could handle at once.”

 

“Not gonna argue with you,” says Keith. “It’s just what I meant when I warned you about blanket agreement on this one.”

 

“Hm. Well then, triple penetration is out by either definition, because neither of you have the three orifices this list is referring to, and since we’re taking the...er...other definition of double penetration off the table at this point, I’m pretty sure it means the same for this one. Not that we have enough requisite parts or any sex toys yet to even try if we wanted to. Let’s just make this one not applicable, yeah?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“So then the next one is ‘Rimming,’” reads Shiro, and taps the “Curious” box on his own datapad with a faint blush. 

 

“Y-you don’t think it’d be gross?” asks Lance, sounding flustered.

 

“No, not at all, especially not the way our undersuits work and those tablets Coran gives us that uh. Well, you know. And as often as  _ you _ take showers. I guess I just don’t think there’s much that’s gross about making you guys feel good.” 

 

What can Lance or Keith say to that, except for yes?

 

The last listing under Sex is “Vanilla,” and Keith is called upon again to explain.

 

“It’s just...regular sex, without any kinks. It was chosen a long time ago, I guess cause it’s the plainest flavor of ice cream. I don’t know why, but that’s what it means.”

 

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with vanilla ice cream, and I don’t think it’s realistic to expect to be able to play kinky games every time we’re together. I don’t think I’d want to. I think if you do  _ anything _ all the time it can start to get boring, or develop unrealistic expectations. There are bound to be times someone will be too tired, or recovering from a minor injury, or we won’t have time. And I know that, speaking for myself, sometimes I’m going to just...want to be with you,” says Shiro.

 

“Makes sense to me,” Lance agrees readily enough.

 

“Yeah, I know. Some of the articles I read even cautioned against using BDSM as part of your sex life every single time. That. Um. Just regular intimacy was important for a relationship, or you could find yourself focusing on the kink and losing sight of the actual relationship,” Keith says, so they agree that this one is essential.

 

Next comes sex toys. Many of the descriptions sound awfully interesting. Shiro starts to think it might even be worth the embarrassment of a conversation with Coran, whenever they decide they’re ready to let the team know the truth about their relationship, and considering how well tonight’s discussions have gone, he thinks that day may come sooner than he’d originally thought. 

 

It’s easy to agree on the subject of “Shaving” that everybody should retain the right to choose what they want to do with their hair, whether on their heads on their bodies. Golden and Brown Showers are taken off the table, one because nobody feels very interested and the other because Shiro very firmly states that he considers it a biohazard, and everybody thinks it’s one of the less sexy things they’ve heard of in….well, ever. Not to mention those nifty Altean pills that render the function moot most of the time anyway. No one is interested in Anal Speculums (even if they did have a set) or partner swapping except with each other. Voyeurism is a definite yes for all of them, again as long as it’s amongst themselves. All three admit that one of the things they’d found exciting about their first time together had been watching each other, and how hot they found the others to be together, though it’s easier for Shiro to say out loud than it is for Lance and Keith.

 

“Worship” is another listing with a number of categories. There’s a distinct lack of excitement over the idea of licking anyone’s boots or feet, but body and genital worship, after Keith explains to Lance that it doesn’t actually involve anything like lighting candles or incense and praying, but rather taking one’s time to touch and kiss and lick their partner to just show appreciation and affection, are wholeheartedly given approval.

 

“Okay….and….’Wrestling,’” reads Shiro.

 

“Wrestling? That’s on there? Sounds a lot like training to me,” says Lance, wrinkling his nose.

 

“Yeah?” counters Keith with a heated look at him. “How honest can you be about how it makes you feel when Shiro or I pin you to the floor during training? Because I’m not embarrassed to say that it’s been turning me on when Shiro does it to me since back at the Garrison.”

 

Lance shuts the hell up and marks his tablet again. Then he looks up at Shiro expectantly.

 

“Okay, what’s next?”

 

“That’s it. That was the last one,” says Shiro. They all go quiet for several long moments, looking at each other.

 

“So….my room?” says Shiro finally. 

 

Lance and Keith are on their feet in a flash.

 

“First one there gets to choose something off the list they wanna try,” cries Lance, spinning on his heel and sprinting for the door.

 

“Hey! Fucking cheater,” yells Keith, pelting after him.

 

Shiro stays behind to pick up the tablets they’ve both forgotten in their haste, tucking them under his arm and strolling after them with a small smile playing at his lips. He knows who’s going to be the one picking anyway. Ah, sometimes it’s good to be the leader after all.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so I've never done this before, but I think I've decided to participate in Voltron NSFW week. I looked at the list of prompts and I think I can fit them into this series really, really well. But it means I'm gonna have to start working on it NOW. So seriously, that thing about suggestions? 
> 
> I meant that. Check out the prompts on Tumblr...just search Voltron NSFW week 2017, and if you have thoughts, I'd be very happy to hear them


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